Life is a Big Mess
by xanimexmangaxlover
Summary: This is a record of my life. Who am I? Hibari Kira, twenty-one year old officer of the Vongola Independent Assassination Squad aka the Varia. Summary? Summary of my life? It's a big mess full of annoying creeps. And me? No. I'm normal. Care to find out? XanxusXOC? DinoXOC? R&R please!
1. The Seven Sins

**Disclaimer: I don't own KHR or any of the characters. Just mine.**

* * *

The Varia are the Vongola Family's elite Independent Assassination Squad. They are composed of genius assassins who work in the deepest recesses of the Mafia. Each member takes on missions that are said to be impossible to accomplish by humans. Those that see them work often say that their high-level assassination skills are demonic.

Those are the words of strangers. They aren't really lies but they aren't the whole truth. That is how a stranger would describe us. A much easier way to describe us, the Varia that is, would just be to say that we're a group of crazy people with crazy hobbies and terrible personalities. In the words of a religious priest that once saw us argue in the middle of the street, we are "the embodiment of the Seven Deadly Sins."

Our boss, Xanxus, is the demon of wrath or fury. I mean… just look at the guy, he loves throwing things at people and takes amusement in watching people suffer. Strategy Captain Squalo is a prideful monster who obviously believes in his skills more than anyone else's and considers himself to be the Sword Emperor after killing the old one. Prince the Ripper, Belphegor, is apparently a sloth just because he's a little apathetic when it comes to other people's pain and suffering. Why should he have to concern himself with other people in the first place? Mammon is obviously the paragon of greed. When the boss signs our paychecks, Mammon is the first to complain about how it's never enough even though we get paid a hefty amount. Levi is obviously the most envious guy you could ever meet. Seriously, he gets jealous when the boss just looks at someone. Why would he be jealous of that? I hate it when the boss looks at me. It means I'm in trouble or he's debating on whether or not to kill me for fun. Lussuria is obviously matched up with lust… I mean… just look at the guy. He works in a field filled with good looking men… and he's gay. Not that there's anything wrong with being gay… just saying, that's the reason people consider him lustful.

So what's wrong with me? Just ask Squalo. He's the type of person to yell at the top of his lungs every single time I try to indulge in just a little bit of fun.

"VOII! YOU EAT TOO MUCH! DAMN GLUTTON! STOP FEEDING HER!" Superbi Squalo was screaming at the top of his lungs, the volume of his voice was starting to shake the windows in the Varia headquarters.

"Shishishi." Belphegor snickered, holding up another plate of steak, "If I feed her enough, do you think she'll inflate like a balloon and explode?"

"I'm not paying for the carpet cleaning." Mammon voiced his concern for his wallet rather than me but that's okay.

"VOII! THIS IS WHY THE BOSS THROWS THINGS AT US! SHE ALWAYS EATS ALL HIS FOOD!" Squalo roared.

"If I eat like that will the boss acknowledge me?" Levi murmured.

"Kira-chan, you should eat in a more refined way." Lussuria scolded me for no reason. I think I eat in a perfectly refined way.

"VOIII!"

"Shut up already!" I stuffed a slice of ham between his lips and removed my hand before he could bite it off, "If you ate like me you wouldn't be so pissy all the time, you damn herbivore."

"VOII!" Squalo screamed, pointing his sword hand at my throat, "I'm going to cut you open in a minute! HIBARI KIRA!"

I stared at the cut of ham that was disappearing into his mouth even as he threatened me, "Squalo-senpai… You ate it too. We're accomplices now."

And before he could say voi again, I stuffed one of my precious slices of bacon in his mouth, "Hey! Someone bring me more bacon!"

"Shishishi." Belphegor laughed as our strategy captain mumbled something incomprehensible through the slice of wonderful bacon I had so graciously given him.

"SHUT UP, TRASH!"

Oh… Well here comes our boss. Everyone took a seat as the boss entered the dining room. I eyed him warily maybe I glared at him for a moment or two but hey, he started it. It seems that the boss was in a bad mood for some reason. It could be that he was still feeling off after those eight years in an icy imprisonment or he could just be mad that Squalo-senpai is a jerk.

"Trash." Xanxus stared straight at me as he said it, "Stop eating or I'll kill you."

"I'll share." I nibbled quietly on my bacon and ham, "Do you want the steak, boss?"

Bastard. Damn. If only he wasn't the boss here, I might've kept eating. HEY! I love food more than anyone and you might think that I'm a traitor for abandoning my food just because my boss told me too but you try it! When Xanxus glares you down, you have no choice but to obey. If it makes any of my fellow food lovers feel any better, I nibbled on my bacon for the longest time. I only stopped because the boss threw his empty wine glass at me.

"We're going to Japan." Xanxus blurted as bluntly as usual. He didn't find the need to explain himself nor did he find his request unreasonable so he just continued with, "Get on the plane now. I refuse to sit with garbage like you so make sure to sit at the back of the plane or I'll throw you off. Take your rings while you're at it."

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O

"Shitty boss." Squalo grumbled, lugging about a million tons of the boss' high quality vodka onto the plane under the orders of Xanxus himself.

"Shut up and carry more." Levi grunted, "If the boss wants more we should get more."

"I need more ham, Levi." I complained.

"He said if the boss wants more, not if stupid Kira wants more." Squalo snapped, "Why aren't you helping?!"

"Lussuria said that a lady shouldn't have to carry those things." I repeated what Lussuria had said to me only moments ago.

"Huh? Speaking of Lussuria… where did he go?" Squalo grunted, haphazardly letting the crates of vodka hit the airplane floor.

"There." I said, turning my head toward the okama sitting at the back of the plane with a magazine in his hands.

"VOIIII! YOU'RE A MAN! COME CARRY THE BOSS' DRINKS!" Squalo roared.

"Ara how rude." Lussuria crowed, "I'm a lady at heart."

"THEN WHY ARE BEL AND MAMMON SITTING THERE WITH YOU?! THEY'RE MEN!"

"Oh Squ-chan. You really don't get it, do you?"

"Get what?"

I could already see where this was going and I didn't like it. At the end of this path, was an airplane ride to a whole different continent filled with Squalo's screaming and Xanxus' fury.

"You can't make the younger children carry those things. That is supposed to be left to the older brothers." Lussuria said it like it was the most obvious thing ever.

"VOIIII!" Squalo screeched out, "WE AREN'T FAMILY!"

"Technically we are." I said, suddenly making myself the receiver of Squalo's growls, "Vongola Family, right?"

"You say some good thing every once in a while, short trash." Xanxus just couldn't give me the compliment so he had to throw that insult in there.

Let me tell you all something. I'm not short. I'm just shorter than Xanxus. 5 foot 2 isn't short. If I ever hear any of you say I'm short… let's just say that I'm in a special assassination squad for a reason. And-?!

"Haha! The boss is right. You're short trash." Levi was always agreeing with Xanxus, even if he wasn't saying good things. But that's not always a good thing for Levi.

My foot went up instantly and nearly cracked his shin open. He let out a scream and nearly folded himself in half trying to make sure his bone was still solid so I took the time to pull my weapon onto my hands. Why? So I could bring it down over his head. Let's just say, Levi was out cold until the plane ride was nearly over and Squalo had to load up the rest of the stuff by himself.

Normally, I wouldn't choose to sit next to our strategy captain for a long plane ride but I knocked out Levi so Xanxus decided that he would watch me suffer and made me sit next to Squalo. Oh don't misunderstand. Xanxus could care less that I nearly smashed Levi's head open with my titanium gauntlets. He's just a sadist that takes pleasure in other people's pains. Speaking of sadists, we have another one behind us.

"Ushishishi." Bel snickered as he tried to cut the ends of Squalo's hair with his knives.

"VOIII! STOP IT BEFORE I SLIT YOUR THROAT, SCUM!"

I groaned and leaned further away from our loudmouthed captain but it only made Belphegor laugh more.

"Squ-chan." Lussuria shook his head as he scolded him, "Be more considerate of your seatmate."

Squalo glared at me, sinking down into his seat with a subconscious yet stubborn pout on his lips, "I hate you all."

"I love Lussuria." I cheered.

"I'm just a lovable person." Lussuria was beaming, his ego starting to get to him.

"So…" I mumbled as the okama turned back to his magazine, "Why didn't you manage to get the rings? You could've checked whether they were fake or not on the spot, right? What pushed you to run so fast?"

"I didn't run." Squalo growled, "I just had to make a strategic retreat. Haneuma (Bucking Bronco) Dino was there."

"Oh? Dino?" I scowled at the sound of his name, "Squalo-senpai ran away from our Dino?"

"VOI!" He screeched, "I didn't run away!"

The plane was just starting to even out so I bent over by knees to reach for the bag of food on the floor. My first snack was a family sized bag of chips.

"You… If you eat that much, why don't you grow?" Squalo shook his head in contempt, his hand automatically going up to stop me from reaching for my gauntlets, "You've been the same height since our school days."

That's right. It's no big deal but Squalo and I went to the same school for a while. So did Dino. Only thing is, they were a year older. Squalo was always a noisy, scowling jerk and Dino was Dino. I came here as an exchange student with terrible Italian but Dino spoke English and Japanese so he helped me out. That's how we got close. A lot of things happened since then, one of the most important things being that I found out Dino was in the mafia, and he stopped talking to me. That was nearly nine years ago. He used to be my best friend here. Pretty sad, right?

Squalo looked me up and down and said, "You won't get to talk much. He's playing for the other side."

"Who else is on the other side?" I asked.

"No clue." He shrugged, "What are the chances that your brother is one of Sawada's guardians?"

"Oh? Are you trying to comfort me?" I laughed, munching down another handful of chips.

"NO WAY! Who would comfort trash like you?" He growled in my ear.

I laughed some more and stuffed a chip between his teeth, "You're so lovable."

Squalo's eyebrow twitched at the very word. Lovable is not something a man would enjoy being called. I had obviously jabbed at his overflowing pride and he didn't like it.

I wasn't really concerned with whether or not I had hurt his pride but I decided I would be nice for once and fix it, "You're so manly, Squalo-senpai."

He grunted and for once didn't complain about my choice in adjectives.

Mammon floated his way over to sit on my head and he looked down at the half-ring on my finger, "How much do you think these are worth?"

"They're priceless." I grinned, awkwardly holding a chip above my head for Mammon.

"Do I have to pay for your food?" The Arcobaleno joked, taking the offering with both of his tiny hands.

"You can pay with victory over whoever has the other half of that ring." I peeked into my nearly empty bag of chips and decided to pass it back to Bel and Lussuria, "For you guys."

"I'm a prince. Why should I have to eat your leftovers?" Belphegor demanded, "Give me a new one."

"Boss!" I whistled up to the front of the plane without complying to Bel's demands, "Do you want beef jerky?"

Xanxus didn't even look back, he just held up his hand lazily. I had known the boss long enough to know that when his empty hand went up that meant he wanted some. The other option was that he would hold up his gun and shoot the person who dared to talk to him when he was in a bad mood but today he wasn't in a terribly nasty mood. He was probably excited that we were going to go on a hunt as soon as we touched down.

I turned my body towards Squalo, who was sitting in the aisle seat, and held up the bag of preserved meat with a smile.

"Lazy piece of trash." Squalo growled, snatching the bag from my hands to deliver it to our boss at the front of the plane before stomping back into his seat, "Do it yourself next time!"

"Hey… You're his right hand man." I shrugged, "Not my problem."

"Doesn't rain deliver things to the sky anyways?" Lussuria mused.

"VOI! Rain falls out of the sky!" Squalo screamed, turning to point at my Vongola half-ring, "CLOUDS DELIVER THINGS TO THE SKY!"

"Noo…. Rain falls out of the clouds!" I protested, "Clouds just float around and do whatever they want till they get filled by water and then rain falls again and the cycle starts over!"

"Ushishishi." Bel snickered, "The sky is supposed to hold you peasants up so it doesn't matter what you all do. Without the sky you would both die."

"DON'T LECTURE US!" Squalo and I snapped at the same time, "WITHOUT RAIN AND CLOUDS THERE CAN'T BE ANY STORMS!"

"Ohh?" Mammon grabbed onto my hair lightly to keep himself from falling off as I snapped my head around to glare at Prince the Ripper, "Such a loud voice from such a small body."

"YOU'RE SMALLER THAN ME!" I growled but I would never hit Mammon. No one in their right mind would hit Mammon. He was a baby for crying out loud!

"Children. Children." Lussuria shushed us, "No fighting."

"Don't call me a child!" I grabbed a stick of salami and threw it at our sun guardian.

"TRASH!" Xanxus roared, "Give me whiskey! Now!"

"Get it yourself!" Squalo snapped.

The rest of us just sat their lazily, looking at our strategy captain expectantly.

"VOI! YOU HEARD HIM!" The loudmouthed swordsman screamed, "WHY ISN'T ANYONE MOVING?!"

"It's the older brother's job to carry things." Lussuria giggled.

"Ushishishi." Bel snickered, "The boss likes you the most."

"I won't do it unless you pay me." Mammon drawled.

"He said trash…." I shrugged, "That means you, Squalo-senpai."

"HE CALLS ALL OF US TRASH!" Squalo protested loudly.

Xanxus let out an impatient growl and spun around in his seat to point his gun in our general direction, "Whiskey. Now."

Only Squalo had the balls to make eye contact with our boss or maybe I should say that he was the only one stupid enough to make eye contact with our boss. The rest of us just pretended that we didn't hear a word he said and that automatically made the boss' servant for the moment, Squalo.

"Voi." Squalo grumbled, slipping out of his seat to get a bottle of alcohol for the boss but he made sure that everyone knew he didn't like it by stepping on Levi's body as he stomped to the back of the plane to get to the crates.

"Poor guy." Lussuria shook his head, "Levi never doesn't anything wrong."

"That's what he gets for liking the boss so much." I laughed, "We can't beat up the boss so Levi gets it in his place."

"That's because the boss is a sadist and Levi is a masochist." Bel snickered.

"You're a sadist too, aren't you?" Lussuria giggled, "I could personally go either way. Kira-chan is a sadist too, right?"

I never really thought about it but I don't really like pain so I guess that means I prefer to inflict pain than feel it myself, "I guess so."

"Squ-chan must be an M." He snickered.

"VOI! STOP TALKING ABOUT PEOPLE WHEN THEY'RE NOT AROUND!" Squalo roared as he got back into his seat.

"Then we'll talk about you now." Bel snickered, "You're annoying."

"HUH?! I'll kill you!"

"Shishishi."

"Squ-chan, calm down."

"Ow! Fucking Squalo-senpai! That's my leg!"

"I'll make you pay me if you come near me!"

And that's how we spent the rest of the ride to Japan.


	2. Jerk

**_Disclaimer:_ I do not own KHR or any of the characters except my own.**

* * *

"Japan! I'm home!" My feet hit the ground after hours and hours of being in the small plane.

"Well she's happy." Squalo grunted sarcastically.

"Who cares." Belphegor snickered.

"I want sushi!" I was already making my list of things to eat while I'm here, "And takoyaki!"

"Sushi?" Bel's ears perked up at the sound of that, "Take me too."

"VOI! We're not here to play." Squalo screeched.

"Ohh… It took him a whole minute to say 'voi' since our touch down." I commented, "Must be a new record."

"Hurry up, trash. Find me a quality hotel." Xanxus demanded.

"Ara, boss, where's your stuff?" Lussuria held up his own suitcase as if he was busily demonstrating how to carry luggage.

"I've got it!" A grunt from Levi, who had recovered from my violent assault only minutes ago, drew our attention.

"Well aren't you devoted." I teased.

I should've kept my mouth shut because in less than ten seconds the boss, who had been debating on who to order around, chose me. Xanxus grabbed my arm by the wrist, pulling it up to his waist level before dropping a cellphone into my open hand. I blinked at it for a while before looking up at our boss indignantly.

"Call a hotel." He demanded.

My jaw went slack and Belphegor started cackling at my expense.

"I need a phonebook. I don't know any numbers for a hotel off the top of my head." I smirked and Bel went from a happy smile to an expression of 'oh-I'm-screwed' in less than a second but it was still too late, the boss had already seen him.

"Find her a phonebook. Now." The boss growled, giving Prince the Ripper over there a hard shove to get him going before turning around and saying, "I want vodka, trash."

The members of the Varia that had yet to receive an order just ignored the boss in the hopes that he would leave them alone.

"Scum." Xanxus' foot made contact with Squalo's rear end, "Go get me some vodka."

The long-haired swordsman cried out in protest, "WHY ME?! GET IT YOURSELF, SHITTY BOSS!"

The rest of us stared after Squalo silently as the man marched straight up to Levi and kicked him in the shin to dig through the last of the crates he was carrying. I'm sure all of us were thinking it but… Poor Levi.

I just rolled my eyes. Squalo always complained while doing things. It was his thing. Even if he wanted to do something nice for someone, which was once in a year or so, he would always complain but he did it anyways. It was the same for getting orders. It's always "Do it yourself!" or "Lazy scum! I'm not going anywhere!" or "VOI! HELL NO!" but he was easily persuaded into doing things, especially for the boss.

I determined it a long time ago but Squalo is a good guy. He just doesn't want anyone to know that he's nice so he pretends that he's not.

Belphegor, on the other hand, is the biggest jerk ever. I glared down at the, for lack of better works, shitty phonebook that he shoved into my hands. It literally looked like he had gotten it out of the dumpster and it looked like he had torn out every page that held phone numbers of hotels. I glanced up from the book to find Xanxus staring down at me impatiently.

"Well." He growled, losing his patience, "Hurry up."

"Uhh…" I gulped and avoided meeting his eyes no matter what, "Squalo-senpai!"

Squalo, who had just waltzed closer to us with a bottle of alcohol in his hands, stopped. I know exactly what he was thinking. He saw that look on my face, the one he says I get when I'm about to throw someone under the bus and run. The loudmouthed swordsman froze and looked like he was about to turn and run in the opposite direction but it was too late for him.

I grinned and tossed him the phone and trashy little phonebook in exchange for the vodka, "You look like you're free now, I'll hand this to the boss so you can call the hotel for me. Thanks."

And of course, the boss was standing right next to me so all I did was turn to the side and grin at Xanxus as I held out the glass bottle.

The boss smirked at me as he accepted the bottle. He was clearly amused at the unjust exchange that had just happened but he snapped at Squalo, "Call now, trash!"

"If you don't hurry, Levi's arms will fall off." Lussuria warned us, gesturing to the man holding all the boss luggage and crates of drinks and steak.

"Ushishishi." Bel snickered, throwing his bag on top of Levi's stack of… burdens, "Carry mine too."

"You little…" Levi didn't get to finish.

Squalo slammed his foot into Levi's shin again and threw his bag on top as well, "Hold mine too."

I think I said this a million times already but… Poor Levi. I mean, I threw my bag up there too but it was nearly empty since I had been munching on the contents the whole way here. That's right. I didn't pack anything except for food. Don't judge me. Not that I care if you do.

"Trash." Whoops. I guess Xanxus was talking to me. I didn't notice since I was busy pitying Leviathan.

"Yes boss?" I hummed.

"Call for a taxi." He ordered.

"Aye sir!" I grinned and hurried out to the front of the airport to hail a cab. Sad thing is, we don't all fit into one cab and we don't have any gentlemen among us so we argued about who gets to ride in the first cab and who has to wait for another one.

"Ladies first!" Lussuria protested.

"You're not a lady!" Squalo roared, "We don't have any ladies in this group!"

"HEY!" I protested.

The Varia went dead silent as they observed me and they all said at once, "Short people don't count."

I pulled my gauntlets over my fists and pounded the person closest to me into the cement. Whoops. Poor Levi.

"That's one less person to cram into our taxi." Bel snickered, "Perfect."

"I was just thinking the same thing." Mammon grumbled, "The taxi fee will be less too."

"Trash." Xanxus was tired of waiting so he got into the cab first, taking up two seats in the back row, "Trash, get in. Short scum, get in."

My eyebrow twitched. Did the boss just call me short? He better have been talking to Mammon. Either way, no one moved. No one wanted to get in after being addressed like that. Whoever got in that taxi would officially be known as trash or short scum for the rest of their horrible Varia lives.

Xanxus pulled out a gun and pointed it at us, thoroughly terrifying the taxi driver, "Get in. Now."

I don't want to think about it but everyone knew exactly who he was talking to. It was obviously me and Squalo but I didn't want to admit that I was short and Squalo just didn't want to sit in the same taxi as our nightmare of a boss. We were at a loss but it was either get in or get shot so we chose to live for a while longer.

"I want to sit in the front." I grumbled.

"Me too." Squalo protested.

Xanxus growled impatiently and simply leaned over far enough to put his hands on me without getting out of the car. Ten seconds later, Squalo was laughing victoriously from the front seat as Xanxus instructed me, "Sit as close to the window as possible and make yourself invisible."

I pressed my face against the window, pleading for someone to switch with me using just my eyes, as the car started to move. I watched in horror as the more fun members of the Varia got smaller and smaller in the distance. Now, I was stuck awkwardly trying to make myself as quiet as possible to avoid incurring the wrath of our boss.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O

The dead of the night is when the Varia works best so that's when we began our ring hunt. Even our boss seemed to be fired up at the challenge of sniffing out the wielders of the other halves of our rings. We didn't really set off together or anything but we all ended up together at the important part so splitting up at the beginning was a waste.

"Hold it, Levi! Don't just eliminate them all on your own. Leave some fun for us." Lussuria demanded as we came together to stop Leviathan from annihilating all the gathered prey at once.

"How dare you trick me, you pieces of trash!" Squalo roared, "Who's got the Ring of Rain?!"

"Me." said some kid I didn't know so I don't care.

"Three seconds is all I need to kill you." Our resident loudmouth growled.

"Move." Our boss wasn't asking. He was just shoving people out of the way as he pushed his way out front.

"Xanxus!" Even the little children recognize our boss, I'm so proud. Little kids know the fear of looking our boss in the eye, meaning our reputation precedes us. Which is probably a bad thing considering that we specialize in secret assassinations…. Oh well. I'm still proud but the feeling didn't last long as our boss lifted his radiating hand to show off his flame.

"Oh boy." I gasped, nearly dropping my hotdog as I scrambled to the side.

"Are you trying to kill us too?!" Squalo protested, putting up his arms as an instant reaction to Xanxus' aura.

And then, Sawada Iemitsu showed up. I have to admit that I've only seen the man once before but he only shows up when things get really serious so I guess I have to be grateful that I haven't seen him too many times. It looks like he got that letter we forged and forced the Ninth to stamp. I could practically feel Xanxus' ego growing.

"Let's have a traditional battle to choose the next boss." Iemitsu explained the "Ninth's" standpoint and sudden change of heart about the candidates for the next boss, "The ones who wield the halves of the same ring will battle it out in a one on one contest to determine which of the candidates is really fit to lead the Vongola Family."

The Cervello showed up like they always do, sticking their noses into places where they're not wanted. If they hadn't really shown up, we would've just clobbered all these punks without problems but noooo… They just had to get here on time.

"I'm bored." I mumbled, fishing in my pocket for something to chew on but I came up with nothing.

I must've looked like I was about to cry because Lussuria leaned over and handed me a stick of beef jerky with a wink. That's why I love Lussuria… Sometimes. I tuned out everyone else to nibble on my single stick of meat, trying to make it last as long as possible. Turns out there's no fighting today which is great for me because I tend to get grumpy and uncooperative when I don't have something to snack on. So I charged back to the hotel to find snacks and Squalo was screaming for me to stop being such a freak the whole way back.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O

"VOIII! WHERE IS SHE?!" Squalo roared.

Whoops. I guess he's mad that I didn't show up to Lussuria's match. But the boss didn't go either! At least I sent the Gola Mosca in my place... Jeez.

"Hi, Squalo-senpai! What took you guys so long?" I gave him the most innocent looking smile I could muster.

His eyes landed on me and he looked like he was about to scream again but thank god for Xanxus.

The boss made his entrance along with a few flying glasses of wine, "Bring me whiskey! I don't want this shit!"

You know, I think that it's hard for some people to see because Xanxus looks really manly and has a deep voice but his words are really childish. It's like listening to an overgrown baby throw a tantrum in a store. Don't tell him I said that but it's true.

"HUH?! Get it yourself, shitty boss!" Squalo howled but he was already moving to get it.

"Ushishishi." Bel snickered, " Levi's in the next round."

"I'm skipping again." I announced, "Anyways… Where is Lussuria?"

"He lost!" Squalo snapped, returning with a bottle of whiskey.

"A what?" I had never been so shocked in my entire life. Our opponents were a bunch of middle schoolers. There was no way that any of them could beat us, so what happened to Lussuria? "The matches are rigged or something?"

"No. He got clobbered and Gola Mosca ended up finishing the job." Levi grunted.

"Oh." I nodded. That made a little more sense because there's no way that Lussuria could possibly be killed by a little kid but what's with the clobbered part? Did he get beat up by someone before entering his one on one fight?

"Figure it out already! Lussuria lost fair and square so we sent him sprawling to the hospital!" Our loudmouthed captain screamed, "Lussuria lost!"

The only reason that I hadn't gone to Lussuria's match is because I thought that he was going to win in less than five minutes and then we'd all have to come back here afterwards in a bad mood because the fight was boring. How could he lose when I'm not watching?! How could he have an interesting fight while I'm here alone with the boss… bored out of my wits?! That pisses me off a little.

"Eh?!" I reacted a little late, "Wait! Does that mean tomorrow's match is going to be a big deal too?! Should I go?!"

"VOII! YOU SHOULD GO TO ALL THE MATCHES!" Squalo roared, "You can't have Gola Mosca do all the work for you!"

"I don't want to go. What if I see Dino again?" I grumbled my complaints, "I haven't prepared my 'you're a jerk' speech yet."

"Haneuma wasn't there today." Squalo grunted, "You're being difficult. Do your job."

"No." I said kind of stubbornly, "I'll do whatever I want."

Squalo's eyebrow twitched and an amused snort came from our boss.

"Whatever." Mammon mumbled, "At least you know that she's our cloud guardian right down to the core. She always does whatever she wants."

"That's right. Now excuse me while I go find some good takoyaki." I grinned, waltzing my way out the door while Squalo screamed at me about being difficult or stupid or incompetent or whatever he was saying.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O

"WHAT?!" I think this week is just going to be full of heart attacks.

"You heard me." Xanxus glared at me as he flashed his ring in my face, "Sawada Tsunayoshi was disqualified today for stepping in to save his Guardian."

"W-Wait. Let me get this straight." My mind was thoroughly blown. Levi won but Lussuria lost?! What the hell? Levi's probably the weakest out of all of us. Just what kind of person was Sawada's Sun Guardian? "So… We're winning, right?"

"VOI! IF YOU ACTUALLY SHOWED UP TO THE MATCHES LIKE YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO, YOU WOULD KNOW!" Squalo roared.

"Okay… So who's next?" I shoved his sword hand away as he tried to attack me.

"Bel." Xanxus grunted, tilting his head to the side just enough to gesture at Prince the Ripper.

"Tragic." I grinned, "I'm still not going."

"WHY THE HELL NOT?!" Squalo needs to learn how to use an inside voice.

"I don't want to see Dino and I still haven't seen Kyoya! That little brother of mine hasn't been home for a while. I wonder where he is…" I was talking more to myself than anyone else but with the Varia there always had to be a sarcastic answer.

"Shishishi. Maybe he bit the dust already." Belphegor snickered.

"Maybe he has a job now." Mammon grumbled, always thinking of his beloved money.

"VOI! WHO CARES?!"

"I care!" I complained, "Boss! Why can't I find him?!"

Xanxus turned a deadly glare on me, his lips still attached to the bottle of whiskey.

"Fine. That's the last time I ask for your opinion. Drunkard." Now. The thing about Xanxus is that…. He likes to throw things at people. If he's in a good mood, he throws insults at people. Yes…. Your eyes are just fine, they're not playing tricks on you or anything. I just said that Xanxus insults people when he's in a **good mood** so imagine him in a bad mood. When he's in a bad mood, he throws whatever he's holding at you.

So let me give you a good tip. The best situation for insulting Xanxus would be when he's holding documents. And one more thing. One would think that the best time to tease him is when he's not holding anything at all. WRONG. If he's not holding anything at all, he'll either pull a gun on you or reach over and grab whatever is sitting closest to him. Doesn't sound too bad? WRONG AGAIN. If he's sitting next to a table and there's nothing on the table, he'll get up and throw the table at you. Our boss is not to be messed with.

Why am I telling you this? Because I called our boss a drunkard and he's holding a bottle of whiskey. Guess what? He's in a bad mood so he took the last swing and threw at me. Obviously, I'm not just going to sit there and take it so I stepped to the side. I said this a million times already but I'll say it again since I moved to the side and the glass bottle shattered as it made contact with Leviathan's face. Poor Levi.

"Get me another one, trash!" Xanxus barked, not even looking twice at poor Levi.

That's why I keep telling him, being devoted to Xanxus doesn't get you any brownie points so he should forget about the boss and do whatever he wants but noooo…. Leviathan will be loyal until he dies.

Squalo grumbled a million inaudible insults as he dragged himself to the door to get another bottle.

"YOU!" Xanxus barked in my ear, "Bring me steak."

"..." I hate our boss so much.

"Someone tell gay trash to buy lamb!" Xanxus shouted.

"Lussuria's been hospitalized." Mammon reminded him.

The boss glared him down, "Then you can go buy the lamb."

Poor Mammon nearly had a heart attack, "Am I being reimbursed?"

Before the boss could say no, I screamed, "Of course. I'll reimburse you."

"Oh good." The Arcobaleno grinned and took the snickering Belphegor with him to the store.

"Good move." Squalo let out a sigh of relief as he continued his way out the door.

Our boss is a jerk but you know what? He's our jerk.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O

Late in the night, Squalo and I sat on the couch. I was busily eating popcorn and Squalo was filling me in about the day's events like usual.

"The boss what?! Are we talking about the same Xanxus?!" I nearly had another heart attack trying to imagine the boss smiling or laughing.

"We only know one Xanxus!" Squalo hissed, his voice ringing in my ears anyways.

"I don't believe it." I laughed, "Our boss never laughs. It's been eight years since that guy smiled, you'd think his muscles are still frozen."

"Don't say anything about that to the boss."

Of course. Even mentioning the Cradle Affair was taboo around our boss but it was common knowledge that the guy hasn't smiled since he was unfrozen but he smiled over just the thought of beating Sawada Tsunayoshi to a pulp? How unfair. I keep missing the good stuff. Maybe I should actually start going to these matches. Imagine the boss smiling. That's disgusting. I changed my mind. I don't want to go anymore. The day Xanxus smiles is the day ten million puppies die.

Squalo and I exchanged a long look. Xanxus may be a jerk but he's our jerk.

* * *

**So my idea for this story was to create a character that is a little strange (Because she is a member of the Varia) but someone that is realistic. There could be times when you find that she's kind of a freak but that was the point. I think I could make her a little bit more strange. What do you think?**


	3. Different Kinds of Bosses

**Disclaimer: I wish I owned Reborn and all the wonderful character but I do not. How sad.**

* * *

"Hi boss." I approached our boss carefully.

Now let me tell you. I don't talk to the boss because I'm not a masochist but I was thoroughly bored and on top of that Squalo-senpai asked me to look after the boss today since I was going to skip the match anyways. Xanxus was apparently in a bad mood from the minute he woke up today and no one knew why, especially since he was in a good mood just yesterday.

He didn't verbally answer me but his eyes followed me around the room as I tidied up his mess.

"Do you want vodka?" I asked, normally I wouldn't offer the boss drinks since he demanded them when he wanted them but I didn't have anything else I could talk about so I was technically just making conversation.

The boss didn't reply. He just glared at me as I swept up the broken glass from his bottle from last night. The boss's room looked like a hurricane zone. I wonder what happened. The boss was quiet all night and this morning he woke up before anyone else and made a giant fuss, waking everyone up. That was at six in the morning now it eleven at night and the boss was still in a crabby mood.

"Then do you want me to call room service for steak?"

Still no answer from the boss except the rumble of his stomach. I looked up and the boss just stared back at me like it was my stomach that had cried out. We stared at each other for a good ten seconds before I gave up on getting a verbal answer and went for the phone.

The boss must be hungry since this would be his first meal all day but exactly how much should I order and what should I order. I glanced over my shoulder at the boss while waiting for room service to pick up the phone. Xanxus was staring intently at my backside and it looked like he wanted to kill something… anything and I was about to be his target. I ordered a steak, a few sandwiches, a hotdog and fries and then some wine instead of strong alcohol because I remembered hearing that alcohol on an empty stomach was bad for a person's health.

When room service wheeled in the food, I set the steak in front of our boss slowly, assessing his reaction so that I would be able to run if he decided to kill something right at that moment. But surprisingly, the boss was silent as he watched the food come down around him.

"Anything else you want, boss?" I asked quietly as the maids set down the wine and turned get the bill.

Xanxus looked me dead in the eye and said, "Potato."

"What kind of potato?" I asked, handing the maid my credit card.

As if I had asked a rude or stupid question, the boss just stared at me silently and expectantly.

"Umm… Can you bring up a baked potato and mashed potatoes?" I added to my order as I footed the bill for the entire meal.

I snatched the hotdog off the table and went to sit in the corner. I wouldn't dare sit at the same table as the boss, at least not by myself. If the other officers were around, it would've been okay since it would count as a business meal but no one ever eats one on one with the boss unless they want to get killed.

Xanxus watched me like he was looking for an opening to shoot me but he never moved. His eyes were trained on me for the longest time before he decided that the food needed immediate attention. He glared down at the cuisine in front of him like he was unsatisfied before opening his mouth to say, "Give me that."

"What?" I asked through my bite of hotdog.

"You heard me." He growled, glaring at my hotdog.

"Okay." I shrugged, getting up to answer the door with the hotdog in one hand, "I'll order you another one."

"No." He said, his deep voice filled with a mysterious aggression.

"But you-!"

"I know what I said." He growled, scaring the crap out of the maid that brought up his potatoes.

"Alright boss. I'm sorry." I muttered, taking the plate from the maid so that she could run for her life. Too bad I couldn't do that too.

I set the plate of potatoes in front of our boss and tore off the part of the hotdog that I bit, handing him the rest of it.

He glared at the food that I had just put in his hand and then at the chunk in my other hand, "Give me that."

"But… this is the part I bit already, boss."

He glared at me for telling him something he already knew.

"Alright…" I shrugged and handed that part over too. Jeez. The boss is probably just trying to starve me because he's in a bad mood. I guess I'll just have to eat later. I swear, Squalo better treat me to something good later.

Surprisingly, Xanxus snatched the chunk that I had torn off and shoved the rest of the hotdog into my hand.

"Can I eat this, boss?" I asked, looking down at the food in my hand like he had handed me something fake.

He glared at me for the millionth time that day but it wasn't a harsh glare, it was more of a 'don't ask stupid questions' glare. Why is our boss so mean and complicated? He handed me a knife and tilted his head toward the steak sitting near him.

I rolled my eyes, shoving the hotdog as far into my mouth as it would go, and snatched his fork from his fingers, cutting his steak into smaller pieces. This big baby just can't do anything himself but don't tell him that I was thinking that or he'll kill me.

The boss leaned forward like he was watching me cut his steak and opened his mouth like he was going to complain again but instead he put his mouth on the other end of the hotdog like it was the most normal thing he could've done. I dropped the utensils in surprise and instinctively tried to back away but the boss's slapped his hand to the back of my neck as he shoved his tongue into my mouth and dug out the rest of the hotdog that I had put in there. He made a satisfied grunt and let me go, leaning back against the chair like he hadn't done anything wrong.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" I screamed and I think, at that moment, my voice was louder than Squalo's could ever be, "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"

Xanxus' eyes slid up from my feet to my face and his lips curved into a smirk, "I never gave you permission to eat it."

My heart was pounding loudly and erratically in my chest. Oh great. It looks like our boss is in a better mood now. Great. Except for the fact that he had to piss me off to do it.

He smirked, taking up the fork I had dropped onto his plate, "Be grateful, trash."

"WHY THE HELL SHOULD I BE GRATEFUL FOR THAT?!"

His lips seemed permanently curled up into that cruel smirk, "That's the only way someone with your figure could get me to do that."

"XANXUS, YOU BASTARD!" I screamed much louder than I had ever screamed in my entire life as I curled my hand around the collar of his shirt.

His expression changed from confidence to boredom, "Don't talk to me that way, trash."

The door nearly flung off its hinge as the other members of the Varia made their entrance. Bel was bandaged up like a mummy but it looked like he won and that's what's important.

"VOI! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!" Squalo roared, ripping me away from our boss, "WHAT HAPPENED HERE?!"

"FUCK YOU!" I screamed and I think I punched him in the gut but it might've been his balls since he let out a pained scream and let me run away.

Stupid Squalo. Stupid Xanxus. Stupid everything! What a bunch of assholes? I didn't know where I was going but before I knew it I was on the roof of the hotel. It probably sounds stupid, but I was crying by the time I got there. I don't want to die yet but my heart was pounding against my ribs so hard that if someone punched me in the chest my ribs would probably press back against my heart and blow it up or something. No matter what I did my heart just kept throbbing. I tried taking deep breaths, I tried crying my eyes out, I tried to stop crying, I tried to stop breathing but nothing helped.

"Hey." Squalo's voice came from behind me.

"Go away." I mumbled, still trying to calm my pulse.

"I heard from the boss. It was just a kiss nothing more." Squalo explained, "If it's about the hotdog, I'll buy you one."

"I need to go to a hospital." I told him seriously.

"What?! Did he bite your tongue or something?" Squalo's eyes narrowed on my face, probably trying to figure out what part was wrong with me.

"No but it hurts."

Squalo's expression twisted into one of horror as his eyes went from my face down to my hips, "VOI!"

I gestured to my chest, "Not there. Here."

Squalo's face turned bright red and my eyes opened wide as I realized what he was thinking.

"NO! Not like that… He didn't do… that." I corrected myself.

"Oh god. Thank god." Squalo breathed out shakily both of us remembering what Lussuria had said about Xanxus' past… lovers, to put it in a kind way.

Xanxus wasn't romantic nor was he gentle with any of his past "lovers" and he usually only put up with them for one night, or so said the rumors.

"Then what hurts? Your match is in a few days, you can't skip out just cause you're hurt somewhere!" Squalo continued.

"I think I'm having a heart attack." I mumbled.

"You'd be dead by now if you were having a heart attack." The swordsman snorted, "You're just fine."

"Uhh… No. If I was just fine then my pulse would be slow. I know what it's supposed to feel like." I complained.

"You're just fine." Squalo repeated, "Go back inside."

"Aye sir." I rolled my eyes at his apathetic response and made my way back down into the hotel.

The boss was nowhere to be found when I returned and that was a relief but the rest of the members were gathered. I grinned as I munched on a bar of chocolate and listened to Squalo rambled on about how he was the next fighter and if I really valued him as a senpai I should at least watch him mop the floor with some Yamamoto Takeshi kid.

"Why should I have to go if you're going to kill him in five seconds?" I complained.

"THREE!" He roared, "It'll be the best three second murder you've seen in your entire life!"

"Boring." I rolled my eyes, "And I'm busy. I still can't seem to find Kyoya."

I knew something was off right away. It wasn't just Squalo-senpai that turned his head, Levi, Mammon, and even Bel were silent.

"What?" I narrowed my eyes on them, "Something happen?"

"Your brother's the Cloud Guardian for the other side!" Squalo snapped.

I laughed. That's hilarious and impossible. Kyoya hates being with other people. He hates it when people crowd together and he thinks anything more than two is a crowd. I was the only one laughing though.

"It's not a joke." Belphegor tilted his head toward the Gola Mosca, "Check his cameras if you don't believe us."

"Okay, Mammon. The jig is up. If this is all an illusion, now is the time to let it go because I'm going to kill you if you keep it up."

"It's not me." The money-loving Arcobaleno shrugged, "But if you want me to make an illusion I'll do it for cash."

"You better not quit on us." Squalo grumbled, "We're not going to forfeit any of the rings so you better show up to your match at least!"

"Yeah. Whatever." I was not about to take this. Kyoya as my opponent doesn't sound fun at all. Let's get this straight. I'm not scared of Kyoya and it's not that I'm afraid of hurting my brother either but the problem is that if I start a fight with Kyoya, it's going to last forever. We're pretty much even.

One more thing. I haven't seen Kyoya in two years. I don't even know what he looks like anymore but if he changed a lot I'm going to cry, instead of fight like I'm supposed to.

Oh well. We'll see in the future.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O

"He what?" I'm going to die before my match. I swear, I'm going to have a heart attack.

"That trash bit the dust." Xanxus snapped.

"..." That can't be. Squalo's the strongest of the officers. If he had fought Kyoya and lost I might've believed it, but what the fuck?! What was the name of the guy he was supposed to fight? Yamato? Oh right. Yamamoto Takeshi. I'll kill that guy even if it's the last thing I do. Oh, don't get me wrong. I could care less that Squalo-senpai's dead. I just want to show the world that I'm stronger than Squalo.

You can think whatever you want but everyone in the Varia thinks like that. If someone stronger than you dies, you have to be realistic. It's a chance to get promoted, there's no time to cry or be sad. We're assassins. We kill people and get killed in return. That's about it.

"Someone tell Lussuria." I cheered, "One of us is going to take Squalo-senpai's spot now."

"Shishishi." Belphegor snickered, "Lussuria already lost his match though."

"Oh…" I grinned, "Screw Lussuria too then! I'm about to be the boss' right hand!"

Xanxus snorted at me but didn't say anything against it.

I guess it's time for me to make a choice then.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O

The day of the Cloud Battle had arrived and at first, I didn't recognize Kyoya but he recognized me. His face went from pure confidence to momentary indecision then back to confidence.

"Kyoya!" Hugs first. Battle later. Scratch that. Hugs and kisses now, no battle later.

"Off! Get off!" My brother complained, his tonfas coming up to defend himself.

"Oh Kyoya. Just say you missed me and get it over with." I couldn't help but tease my cute little brother. Hey. He may look like a murderer but he's cute to me. "You're so tall now!"

"You're still as short as ever." He grumbled, swinging at me half-heartedly.

"You're so cute." I grinned. The only person in the world who can get away with calling me short is Kyoya.

"I'll bite you to death." He growled.

"Tch." I clicked my tongue, "What did I tell you about that?"

"Not to say it unless I mean it but I don't care what you say." He growled, swinging at me much more violently.

I ducked down and spotted the strangest thing in the world through the gap made by Kyoya's legs, "DINO?!"

Kyoya gave me a look that said he saw this coming, "Someone you know?"

Bucking Bronco Dino was staring at me with wide eyes. He rubbed his eyes with his fists and looked back at me and then rubbed his eyes again. I couldn't hear him from the distance I was at but his lips moved to form my name, "Hibari… Kira?"

I abandoned Kyoya and went straight for Dino. I couldn't kiss Dino like I kissed Kyoya because that would just be awkward so I settled for strangling the crap out of him with hugs and then punching him in the nose, "Bastard!"

Dino's hand held his bloody nose as he stared up at me from the dirt in shock, "What was that for?!"

"You haven't talked to me in nine years! I hate you! I'm going to bite you to death right here." I growled, grabbing him by the collar and pulling him up to eye level.

Dino's eyes went wide again, "W-Wait!"

There were a lot of people here not just the Varia but Sawada's guardians too. And in front of all these people, I opened my mouth and bit down on Dino's neck as hard as I could. I'm not a vampire but I do like the taste of blood. Unlike Kyoya, when I say I'm going to bite someone to death, I mean it quite literally. The taste of Dino's blood filled my mouth and I heard several people, on Sawada's side, scream in disgust or confusion.

"W-Wait. Kyoya!" Dino's voice was panicky again, "This… This isn't…. KIRA! GET OFF! KYOYA'S GOING TO KILL ME BEFORE YOU IF YOU DON'T MOVE!"

My eyes narrowed. Oh no he's not. I don't like it when people steal my prey even if it's Kyoya I won't let it happen. My teeth left Dino's skin as I turned to meet Kyoya head on, "Kyoya~ Wait patiently so I can kill Dino quickly and fight you afterwards."

He looked tempted to obediently do what I said for the heck of getting to fight me but then he looked up at Dino and started to debate which fight would be more fun.

"Ahem!" The Cervello had arrived at the worst time possible, "Please don't start without our permission. Follow the rules."

I licked the blood from my lips and growled, "Gola Mosca! Take my place and fight Kyoya. I want to kill Dino."

I tossed the robot my ring and turned to chase after Dino, who had gotten a head start running away.

"Kira!" Kyoya called after me in an irritated voice but the stage was set and I was long gone, forcing Kyoya to fight Gola Mosca and win if he was going to come after me.

I could feel Xanxus glaring at me as I chased the Bucking Bronco but I didn't look back, lately whenever I look the boss in the eye my heart starts to go crazy and beat twice as fast as it usually does. I think it's probably because I'm either scared of the boss now or his face just pisses me off. Terrible, right?

"Is it really okay to leave the fight to that robot?!" Dino screamed, not looking back as he tried to persuade me to leave him alone.

"I don't care." I growled, "I just want to kill you first. I can fight Kyoya anytime."

"You guys are going to lose!" He screamed, "Kyoya doesn't like fighting weaklings."

"I don't care. That has nothing to do with me."

"This is not how a reunion is supposed to be!" He let out a choked scream as he tripped over his own feet and fell onto his face.

I slammed my foot down over his back to keep him from getting up again, "This is what you get for leaving without saying good bye and what you get for not replying to any of my messages."

"Fucking Romario." He mumbled when he realized that he was alone and then he sighed, "I guess I should've worn better shoes."

My eyebrow twitched as I glared down at his back, "Is that all you have to say?"

He made a sorry attempt at getting out from under my foot and the only thing he managed was turning over onto his back, revealing his bloody nose to me, "Kira. It's good to see you again."

"Too late, Haneuma." I growled, pulling my gauntlets over my hands, "I'm going to kill you now."

"So you joined the Varia?" He smiled up at me.

My eyes narrowed, moving from his smile up to his eyes. If he's smiling, why does he look so sad? Is he starting to realize that he's a dead man now?

"How have you been?" His searched me head to toe and then back up again, "I don't see any scars."

"..."

"Let me up, Kira." He wasn't demanding it nor was he begging for it. Dino was just suggesting it.

"Why did you stop talking to me?" I asked him quietly, even though there was no one else around I didn't want to seem weak for asking something so petty in a tone that suggested that I had been hurt by his decision to stop talking to me.

He was quiet for a minute before saying, "I didn't want you to get hurt."

My eyebrow twitched and I motioned for him to continue talking.

"I understand that most of the people who attended our school were members of the mafia but you weren't." He smiled at me so sadly that I thought he might cry if I teased him even a little, "I didn't want to involve you in mafia affairs so I talked to Squalo about it and he told me that I should decide for myself. I couldn't think of any other way to keep you from getting dragged into our world. I'm sorry."

"That's not enough. I was stronger than you when we first met. I wasn't mafia but I was stronger than you. Who do you think you are?"

"That's why I was scared. We were young and you were so confident in your strength that you stood between me and anyone who tried to bully me. That scared the crap out of me. If it was just the bullies, I might not have cared but I'm in the mafia. I was afraid that you would get hurt trying to save me from other Families that came after me. I was weak until I met Reborn. I had no other way to protect you."

My eyebrow twitched once more, "So you cut me off completely and you ignored me and every effort I made to talk to you? I thought you were mad at me for the longest time. You couldn't have just told me back then that you were scared of my weakness?"

"Your weakness? Not at all. I was scared of my weakness." He tried to explain, "Really. I never thought of you as a weak person in my entire life. Not now, not then, not ever."

"Then why would you think I would get hurt trying to fight the people who came after you? If you thought I was strong, you would never worry about those things. You must've thought that I was weak if you were afraid of stupid things like that. Thanks for nothing, Dino." My voice came out weaker than I thought it should so to cover up the weakness in my voice, I kicked him in the jaw and marched back towards the school so I could fight someone else.

"Kira! Wait!" He called after me.

I didn't look back as I continued toward the school but if I had even glanced back I would've ran because Dino was scrambling after me. Once he caught up, he threw his arms around me from behind. I froze, his breathing was ragged as he clung to me.

"I'm really sorry. If I had known that my decision would drive you into the Varia, I would've just asked you to join my Family. Please, forgive me." His apology seemed sincere but for all the wrong reasons.

My eyebrow twitched twice this time and I lifted my hand and drove it right into his forehead, "Piss off, herbivore."

Dino made a face of pure shock as he registered my words and then he began to laugh, "You know… You're much more intense than Kyoya."

"Stop calling my brother by his given name." I demanded, "Or else I'll bite you to death right now."

"Ehh…?" He scratched his cheek awkwardly, "It's alright, isn't it? I mean… I call you by your name too."

"Then stop calling me by my name too. We're not on friendly terms so you can't call me that." I snapped and turn to leave again.

Dino threw his arms over me once more, "Kira. I want to be your friend again. So I'm going to start talking to you again. Even if you decide to treat me the way I treated you, that's okay. I'll faithfully make attempts to talk to you for nine years to make up for the nine years that I ignored you for. Okay?"

"I don't care."

He let out a sigh of relief, "Your number changed, right? Give me your new number."

"No." I said simply, "I'm going to ignore you for nine years so you can get my number off of someone else but I highly doubt that anyone would be dumb enough to give my number to someone like you."

"Ouch." Dino winced, "I really hurt your feelings, huh?"

"No. I don't care enough about you to have my feelings hurt by anything you do."

He winced again, "I'm sorry. I'll say it as many times as it takes. One day, let's be friends again."

"No."

"Oh boy…" Dino sighed, "Please?"

"NO." I think it's going to be a very long night.


	4. Sky Ring Battle

_**Disclaimer: **_**I still do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn and I don't think I ever will.**

* * *

"Where have you been?" Levi interrogated me with a glare as I reentered our hotel room nearly twenty hours after I had disappeared chasing Dino.

"None of your business." I snapped.

I wasn't about to tell the Varia that I had been spending time with the enemy. Well, technically Dino isn't the direct enemy because he's not a guardian but still…. He's on that side so he's the enemy. We didn't do anything special or even anything normal. He just followed me around all night long trying to get me to say something other than 'no'. It must've been tiring but he didn't give up until I told him to get lost because I was tired and even then he didn't give up. He just said that he would see me again.

"All the guardians have to gather for the Sky Battle." Levi warned me.

"I'm not a guardian. I gave the spot to Gola Mosca." I punch him in the gut rather than simply asking him to get out of my way so I could find beef jerky.

"Bitch." Levi cursed, "Gola Mosca was trashed by your brother."

"Wao." I said sarcastically, "I totally didn't expect that."

"You bitch. You were just giving the win to him?!"

"Shishishi." Bel snickered, "You're pretty soft, aren't you?"

I nibbled on the corner of my salami stick, the replacement for the beef jerky that I couldn't seem to find, "Prince the Ripper is about to be Prince the Ripped-up."

"Shishishi." He snickered again but didn't say anything.

"Let's move, trash." Xanxus ordered, a victorious smirk already plastered on his face.

Sawada's Guardians were already gathered at the school where the battle was supposed to take place. When we arrived, the Cervello handed us each a watch and dragged Lussuria and Mammon into the area.

Xanxus glared down at me as I stood there with zero intentions to wear the watch, "Trash. Put it on before I shove it down your throat."

I glared at the shitty looking wrist accessory and had an internal debate on whether or not I should try shoving it down our boss' throat before taking it and shoving my hand through it irritably, "Happy?"

"Everyone will be participating in this battle." The Cervello explained.

"Where's Squalo?" Some kid asked.

"Oh?" I grinned, "You must be Yamamoto Takeshi. If we're all participating in this battle, you're my first target."

He stared at me oddly for a while before nodding to show that he was taking up my challenge.

"Oh good." I'm happy. At least I get to kill someone.

The Cervello showed us all to our spots and I took the time to assess the school that Kyoya seemed to love so much. Kyoya was glaring at me the whole time. He's probably mad that I left him to fight a boring robot while I chased after the more interesting opponent.

"You are all welcome to fight, if you can." The Cervello explained and that was the only warning we got before the little wrist watch decided to pretend it was a fucking leech and stabbed itself into my skin, obviously injecting something into our veins. I fell first but Kyoya fell harder. I collapsed to my knees first and then all the way as my blood began to boil but Kyoya's inexperience body shivered for a second before his muscles gave out all at once, his body hitting the dirt hard.

"The guardians have all been injected with a poison that will render them unable to move." The Cervello continued their explanation, "The poison is called Death Hitter. It'll slowly spread about the body, rendering the guardians unable to move. They'll feel a burning sensation throughout the body and if they do not receive the antidote within half an hour, they will die."

Well that sucks. I don't want to die yet and I don't like the idea of suffering for a whole half an hour before dying. I said this before but I'm not a masochist. I don't like pain. I turned my neck slightly to get a glimpse of Kyoya. Poor kid was breathing pretty harshly but he'll live because I can move already. The battle between Sawada and Xanxus just started, I can feel it, the boss' flame. And I can practically hear the boss laughing sadistically as he plays with the victim.

Oh. My fingers twitched. Good. Oh. I got it. My legs are twitching. I can bend my knees. There we go. I picked myself up slowly and unsteadily. I tried to even my breathing but it was pretty useless. I sounded like a tornado but at least I was moving. I glanced up at the tower that held the ring. Now, I can either attempt to smash it or climb up. They both sound a little difficult with the pain but smashing it seemed easier. My eyes were drawn to Kyoya's body as I pulled my gauntlets over my hands. He was glaring up at me, his fingers twitching around his tonfas and his legs shivering.

"Wao." I whistled, "You're already starting to get used to it. Do you want me to help you up?"

He glared at me silently.

I was hurting his pride. I just laughed and slammed my fist into the steel poles that made up the tower holding our antidote. It took two solid punches to topple the tower but once that was done the ring was right in the palm of my hand. I used it first and then knelt beside Kyoya, silently offering it to him.

He scowled at the ring as it neared his wrist, "NO."

I held the ring inches from his watch, "Okay. You have almost twenty-five minutes. I'll wait for you to get it yourself."

I could hear Xanxus laughing from where I was sitting.

"This is the difference between your guardians and my subordinates!" He cackled.

I rolled my eyes, "Kyoya, do you hear that? Is he bragging about me or saying that he doesn't even consider me his one of his guardians?"

"Shut up." My brother hissed, his breathing coming out in short puffs as his foot began to twitch.

"Oh? You can already feel your feet. You're doing well." I encouraged him, "Do you want to join the Varia?"

"I hate crowds." He said harshly.

"Right. I used to too… Before I met Dino." I slapped a hand over my mouth in surprise, "Whoops. You weren't supposed to hear that."

Kyoya spared a second or two to give me an amused look before determining that he was in a lot of pain and being able get the ring from me was more important than anything I could possibly have to say about Dino.

"Hey… Kyoya?"

He grunted to tell me he was listening as his arm moved forward.

"Dino said he trained you… So you guys must've spent a lot of time together, right? Did he talk about me at all?"

All of Kyoya's body movements stopped for a moment, "Why are you asking me that? Ask him yourself."

I felt my lips twitch into a smile as he began to focus on getting the ring again. My question must've taken him by surprise but I really was curious. Did he think about me at all during the nine years that had past? Did he know that Kyoya was my brother? Did his heart ache like mind did when he stopped talking to me?

"Kyoya, is there a girl you like?" I asked, surprising my brother again.

His lips curved into a sly smirk and suddenly, he was on his feet. He swung his tonfas at me and I instinctively flipped away before he could touch me. He was wobbly on his feet but the determined look in his eyes had changed to a much more fierce look of determination than ever before. He swung at me again and I tried to make it look like I was really fighting for the ring but I guess my acting was bad as I went 'Whoops' and dropped the little chunk of metal.

Kyoya stared down at the thing that could possibly save his life but didn't take a single step toward it as he glared at me, "Fuck you."

I grinned at him, "Take it. Then I'll fight you as much as you like but only after you tell me about that girl you like."

His eyes narrowed stubbornly for a moment but eventually he took up the antidote. I ran. There was no time to waste. Kyoya had taken less time than I anticipated to get the ring so I had time to spare as I went around to the places that held the rest of the member of the Varia. I headed for Lussuria first and while I was doing that, our boss decided to be charitable and help out Bel and Levi.

Sadly, I was cut off halfway by Hurricane Bomber Gokudera Hayato. He was just asking to get killed so I pounded his face in and he blew something up in my face. It hurt for about ten seconds and then I thought of Xanxus and my heart did that funny flip-flop thing. I was probably so pissed off after thinking of the boss that I had some sort of power boost from the anger. I have to admit that he was good and I was in some major pain by the time I was through with him.

I swiped his rings and made my way toward Lussuria. The okama saw me and it took him about two seconds to realize that he was saved.

"Kira!" He cried, "This is why I love you, darling. Come and save me. Help me~"

I didn't want to admit it, but I was feeling a little dizzy so I rushed over to help Lussuria before I was too far gone. I must be crazy because when I thought of Kyoya, I ran over and helped Sawada's Sun Guardian too. He stared up at me, probably completely confused since I was on the other side.

I smiled at my own stupidity but he must've thought I was smiling at him, "Are you close to Kyoya?"

"Hibari? Not really…. but he's an EXTREMELY strong guy." The boy said.

"Sure. Your name?" I asked.

"Sasagawa Ryohei."

"Hmm. Just thought I should know the name of a person I save." I shrugged.

"I am extremely in your debt."

I rolled my eyes, "Let's call it even cause I beat up the Hurricane Bomber."

"That Octopus Head?!"

"Good bye now." Lussuria cooed as we took our leave.

It didn't take long for us to figure out that everyone had been cured and now it was just a mad battle for the rings. I had swiped all the rings off the Hurricane Bomber and so the only ones left was the one I left with Kyoya. That means if we take down Kyoya we win. Lussuria and I split up to search for him.

Kyoya wasn't exactly excited to see me when I found him. He was struggling to stay standing and all alone.

"Are you ringless?" I asked.

He held up his bare hands and nodded.

"Damn. You're useless. Who has the rings?" I questioned him for the answer I wanted.

His picked up his tonfas and lifted his arm in front of him, "Fight me for the answer."

"You look like you're going to fall over if I push you." I laughed, "I don't have time for you."

"Speak for yourself." He grumbled, "If I spat on you, you would probably die."

"Want to try it?"

We were staring each other down for a moment before my armored fist met with his steel tonfa. The sound of our weapons clashing echoed of the crumbling walls. Kyoya's tonfas slammed into my side and my gauntlet smashed into his shoulder.

"I'll bite you to death." He growled and his second tonfa crashed into my skull.

I felt my vision blur from the impact but my foot instinctively came up to slam into his chin. He hit the ground on his back as I landed on my side. I hate to admit it but there's a blank in my memory right here so I know that I passed out for about ten seconds here and when my consciousness returned to me, I scrambled to my feet. Kyoya was still lying flat on his back, unable to move.

He glared at me weakly and I hate to hurt his pride but I have to tell you that he looked really pitiful just then.

"How long was I out?" I asked.

"Not long." He grumbled.

"I guess you won this one." I laughed.

He averted his eyes from my smiling face obviously not thinking of it that way.

"Come on. I'll help you up." I grasped his hand tightly and tugged, urging him to take my help.

"I don't need your help." He protested verbally but his body said otherwise. His hand curled tightly around mine much like it used to when he was a child. I mean, he's still a child, but when he was much younger he used to hold my hand all the time. He just refuses to admit it.

"After this…. Let's eat together someday." I tightened my grip on his hand as I pulled him up.

"... Hamburger steak." He murmured, indirectly saying yes to my offer.

"Let's invite Dino." I suggested.

He narrowed his eyes at me.

"Okay. Never mind then. It'll be you and me. Two is company, three's a crowd. I got you."

He gave my hand a quick yet strong squeeze before snatching his hand away in a hurry.

I laughed as he took off running, "What's the hurry? Jeez."

"AH! YOU AGAIN!"

My eyebrow twitched in annoyance as I turned to find the Hurricane Bomber pointing at me like I was some sort of strange being, "I'm not exactly thrilled to see you again."

We all gathered at the front of the school where the true Sky Battle was reaching its end. Xanxus lay flat on the ground, staring blankly up at the dark, night sky. It was nearly over. The rings had rejected him and the Cervello had disqualified him. The Varia had lost for the first time. Xanxus' eyes landed on me. There was a fire behind his eyes that I had never seen before. Such anger, such rage, is probably not good for his mind. I smiled at him in apology. It was over.

The boss' eyes slid shut. He was obviously tired. I glanced around to find the officers staring off into space. They were tired too. It wasn't just our side that was exhausted. Sawada's side looked like they had had enough. I nodded to myself and allowed my mind to admit to itself that I was tired as well.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O

"VOII! HOW LONG ARE YOU PLANNING TO EAT?! AND YOU! STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT EVERYTHING AND EAT WHAT WE GIVE YOU!" Squalo roared.

That's right. I said Squalo. He's alive but sometimes I wish he had just bitten the dust like everyone said he did. Bel and I shared a long look of sympathy for the first time and it was obvious that we were both thinking the same thing. For someone who had just 'come back to life', Squalo-senpai was way too loud.

"Haneuma should've just left you to die." I complained.

"HUH?!" He glared at me harshly, snatching the fork from my hands, "NO MORE FOR YOU!"

I shrugged and stabbed my steak with the knife, eating it with the knife since he had confiscated my fork and when he took that too I stuck my tongue out at him and used my hands.

"Dirty woman." He sneered.

"Well fuck you too." I snorted, "I'm going to hang out with Kyoya. Call me up if-!"

Squalo grabbed me before I could get up, "Finish the food, you black hole!"

My eyebrow went up, "Excuse me?"

"You heard me. Finish the food." He said firmly.

Our boss was in a rotten mood already but I guess he just got sick of all our arguing so he flipped the table and threw a glass of wine at us, "SHUT UP, TRASH!"

The entire room went silent. He called us trash again. Just great. We all knew now that Xanxus wasn't really the Ninth's son. He was adopted but he didn't know until later on in life and now he had the habit of calling everyone trash or scum because he thought that he was better than everyone else since he was the son of the Ninth but now we all know he's not so…. It's confusing isn't it? Yeah. I thought so. So I gave up.

I was the first to smile and say, "Okay, boss. I'll shut up if you pay me in hotdogs and smoked ham."

He smirked at me and suddenly I felt like I had made a mistake. My heart began to pound in my chest. I averted my eyes as quickly as possible. Honestly, I have to say that this feeling is strange. My heart beats so fast that it hurts sometimes and I can't figure out why. Is it because he pisses me off? Or is it because I'm secretly scared of him?

Lussuria giggled loudly, drawing all of our attention, "Oh. Don't mind me."

I mind. I mind a lot because when the rest of the officers returned to their food or drink, Lussuria winked straight at me. What is that supposed to mean? I'm confused. Lussuria's gay so why would he wink at me? He's definitely not hitting on me so he's hinting towards something but I don't know what he's getting at. That's complicated too so I just decided to keep doing what I do best and that's eating.

I guess I don't eat as well as I thought because I found it rather hard to eat with Xanxus' eyes boring into the side of my head. I thought he was glaring at me so I decided to sneak a glance at him and that was my mistake. He wasn't glaring at me but he was staring rather intently at me. I swallowed hard without chewing but I was used to that too so nothing happened. I returned his look for a while but I found it too hard to do with my heart pounding against my ribs. What's wrong with me?

No. What's wrong with the boss? I don't even think he knows he's doing it but he just keeps staring at me and every time I glance over he gets this little smirk on his face like I'm the one doing something strange. What a weirdo?

Lussuria muttered something about the mood being really heavy and ended up getting up. Mammon grumbled something about needing a raise if he had to stay in a disgusting atmosphere. Squalo dragged Bel and Levi out leaving me alone with the boss.

"Boss?" I asked, getting straight to the point, "What's with the look?"

"What look?" He was either genuinely unaware of what he was doing or he was playing dumb.

"That look." I rolled my eyes, "How long are you going to stare at me?"

"Why would I stare at trash like you?" He snorted, "Get over yourself."

My eyebrow twitched and I picked up another loaf of bread, "Alright then I'm out of here."

It happened pretty fast so I don't quite understand exactly what happened but I'm pretty sure, Xanxus' hand hit my butt for a minute and his lips smashed themselves against mine. I stood there wide-eyed and I didn't realize it until he pulled away but my arms were around his neck and his hands were tangled into my hair.

Not good. I don't understand. I shoved him away as quickly as possible, "WHAT THE HELL! Leave me alone!"

He smirked arrogantly at me but didn't say a word.

The door opened just in time. I stormed out and I could've sworn it was Squalo that I brushed by because I heard a "VOI! AGAIN?!" as I made my way out of the hotel room and up to the roof.

It was like deja vu. I sat alone on the roof trying to calm my pounding heart and then Squalo came up.

"It was just a kiss. You know the boss likes to play with women." He explained.

"You just left me there, Squalo-senpai. How cruel. Now I really need to go to a hospital."

"VOI! What exactly hurts so bad that you have to go to a hospital?"

"I'm having a heart attack, senpai. Either that or the boss pisses me off so much that I'm getting high blood pressure or something. Or maybe I'm scared of the boss for some stupid reason and I need to go to a mental hospital."

Squalo looked at me funny and then he said, "You're pretty dense, aren't you?"

"What?" I was about to start a fight with him right there on the rooftop but Lussuria giggled his way into our conversation.

"Dear, child. Have you ever been in love before?" Lussuria asked, putting his entire body between us to keep us apart.

"That's ridiculous! Have you?" I spat.

"Of course, dear." He giggled.

I could feel all the blood drain right out of my face, "You have? But you're… we're mafia!"

Squalo slapped a hand over his face, "WHAT IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!"

"Shhh. Squ-chan." Lussuria shushed him, "You've never been in love, Kira-chan?"

"With Kyoya." I blurted.

"Huh?" Squalo and Lussuria shared a look of utter confusion, "Incest?"

"WHAT?!" I slapped Squalo and then nearly shoved Lussuria off the roof, "Not that kind of love!"

"VOI!" Squalo roared and pulled his sword on me, "FUCKING TRASH!"

"Let's all calm down and have a conversation like adults." Lussuria wasn't really suggesting it. He was demanding it.

I helped him back onto the roof and sat back down with our loudmouthed captain.

"Let's have an imagining session." Lussuria cooed, "Let's all imagine the boss."

"WHY WOULD I HAVE TO DO THAT?!" Our noisy swordsman screamed.

"Just close your eyes and do it."

I don't know what Lussuria was imagining but he started squirming around and squealing like a maniac while I was over here trying to keep my heart from exploding as I imagined Xanxus' arrogant visage and bipolar mood swings.

"VOI!" Apparently whatever Squalo saw pissed him off because he was on his feet again, swinging at his imaginary vision of the boss.

"Squ-chan." Lussuria scolded him, "Stop that. We're supposed to be imagining like adults."

"Like… ADULTS?!" Squalo screeched, "NO! YOU PERVERTED OKAMA!"

"Well… This isn't about you or me." The eccentric man giggled, "Kira-chan. How was it?"

"How was what? It didn't help." I snapped, "I'm going to a hospital."

"Explain. How does it feel?" Lussuria clamped his hands down over my knees to keep me from getting up until he was ready to let me up.

"My heart is going to explode. I swear. It's beating at a thousand miles and hour and I can't breathe." I explained as quickly as possible, "I need to see a doctor."

"No, dear. This is wonderful!" He screamed and got up to dance around like a maniac.

"What the hell? He didn't even tell me what was wrong with me."

"You're dense as fuck." Squalo snapped, "You're obviously in love with the boss."

Well. The bastard might as well have slapped me in the face because that's what it felt like. Me? In love? With the boss out of all people? No way in hell. Never. Impossible.

"Oh this is so exciting." Lussuria giggled wildly.

"NO IT'S NOT!" Squalo protested, "The boss doesn't treat his women well!"

"Oh." Lussuria's shoulders drooped like someone had taken the air out of them, "Poor Kira-chan!"

"SHUT UP!" Squalo roared, "LET ME TALK!"

"No one's stopping you." I grumbled, still completely skeptical about my feelings for the boss.

"DON'T GO AROUND TELLING PEOPLE YOU WERE NEVER IN LOVE BEFORE. OBVIOUSLY YOU WERE IN LOVE WITH HANEUMA BEFORE YOU JOINED UP WITH US!"

Again. He might as well have just slapped me in the face. But this one was a less sharp sting because it was just as unbelievable as the first one. What a liar.

"No way." I denied his claim, "It's impossible. Dino and I were just friends."

"That's obviously not the way it was." Squalo got right in my face and glared at me, "Open your eyes. You wouldn't protect random people. You're not that kind. The only reason you made friends with Haneuma in the first place is because he was all nice to you and shit so you fell for him."

"Ara?" Lussuria was having one hell of a time listening to all this, "This is like a romantic movie. Tell me more."

"YOU SHUT UP!" Squalo ordered, "Well?"

"Well what? One of those is obviously wrong. If I was in love with Dino, how come I didn't have heart attacks when I talked to him?" I shot back, "Huh? Answer that one, captain smartass."

"Don't call it a heart attack!" It was now Lussuria's turn to attack my confidence, "Those are beautiful feelings and you can't use such a disgraceful word to describe them! There are just different kinds of love, dear! If your heart flutters when you're with the boss, that means he's approaching you much more aggressively."

"That's so stupid. Love is love so which is it. If I was in love with Dino then I'm not in love with the boss. If I'm in love with the boss then I never loved Dino." I protested stubbornly.

"VOI! Why are you making thing so complicated?! JUST LISTEN WHEN PEOPLE ARE TELLING YOU THE FACTS!" Squalo roared, "You little retard."

"GAH!" I screamed and jumped straight off the rooftop.

"Kira?!" Lussuria and Squalo must've been surprised as they watched me free fall and from the twelve story building and land flat on my feet like it didn't hurt one bit, "YOU DUMB BITCH! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

"You're confusing me so I'm going to see Kyoya! BYE BYE!" I waved before taking off. I didn't want to give them enough time to decide whether or not they wanted to chase me down and continue their ridiculous lecture.

Time to hang out with my beloved brother.

* * *

**Thank you for all your reviews. I probably should've mentioned it all sooner but if you haven't finished the series there will be a lot of spoilers along the way. Please finish the series before you read... any story, I suppose. I'm sure you all know already but if you don't, well now you do.**


	5. Kyoya and Dino

**Disclaimer: I wish I owned Reborn and all the wonderful character but I still do not. How sad.**

* * *

I don't really know what Kyoya does all day but I do know that he's still a student. He probably attends school during the day so I decided to check out Namimori first. He did say something about being in some sort of Disciplinary Committee so I could probably just ask someone if they know him. I stopped by and ordered some hamburger steak take-out before wandering into the school. People were running around all over the place so I guess it must be some sort of special school cleaning day or something. I don't really know much about my country's school system since I went to school in Italy most of my life.

"EHHH?! IT'S THE VARIA!"

I recognized that voice. I turned on my heels to find Sawada Tsunayoshi and a few of his guardians staring me down, each and every one of them on edge. I stared them down quietly for a while before asking, "Hey. Where's Kyoya?"

"Hibari-san?" Sawada blinked in confusion.

"Hey. That's not how you ask Jyudaime a question." Gokudera growled, pulling his bombs on me.

"Oh?" I laughed, "Do you want to fight me again?"

"TO THE EXTREME!"

My ears rang as a cloud of dust ran right up and stopped in front of me. Squalo-senpai's voice is loud but this guy could probably compete with him if he tried. What was his name again? I think this is one of the guys I helped during the Sky Battle but I can't quite put my finger on it but I should probably try a little harder to remember because he's holding a bag of quality salami in my face.

"AH! YOU BASTARD! Don't play nice with the enemy!" Gokudera roared.

"WRONG! She's not the enemy. Or at least she's not a bad person." What's his name said.

My face scrunched up as I tried to figure out his name.

"AH! Gokudera-kun. Onii-san. Calm down." Sawada wasn't exactly helping me. What the hell is this guy's name?

"Sasagawa-senpai is as extreme as ever." Yamamoto laughed.

I like Yamamoto from this moment forward. He's a good guy, helping me out like that. Now I remember. He said his name was Sasagawa Ryohei or something like that.

"I'm repaying my debt to the extreme!" Sasagawa screamed holding up the salami between my eyes with one hand and a bag of spicy chips in the other, "For you!"

"Wao." I snatched the food from his hands, "How did you know I like this stuff?"

"Why are you all crowding around my sister?" Kyoya's eyes landed straight on the bags in my hand and then turned a deadly glare on Sasagawa Ryohei, "You have some nerve, herbivore. I didn't share that information with you for this purpose. I'll bite you to death."

"A fight?" Sasagawa grinned, putting his fists up, "I'm ready for you anytime!"

"Ah! No fighting!" Sawada screamed, flinging his arms around wildly.

"Oh?" Kyoya's eyes narrowed further, "It looks like you have some guts."

"If I win, I get to take your sister on a date!" He screamed.

… Oh? Is this what the food was all about? Kyoya's so cute. I could already envision exactly what had happened. Kyoya hates people so Sasagawa probably followed him around all day asking the same question over and over again until Kyoya finally got annoyed and gave up the answer with the agreement that Sasagawa would leave him alone if he did. Now Kyoya was probably mad because Sasagawa was clearly hitting on me without his direct permission.

"Kyoya." I whistled, getting my brother's attention, "Let's eat hamburger steak before it gets cold and then I'll fight you."

The battle-maniac's ears perked up at the sound of a fight, "I get the bigger steak."

"If that's what you want." I shrugged, "Let's go."

Kyoya led me up to the second floor of the school building and flung the open the door to his room I guess. Kyoya's kind of a big shot here, huh? I never knew. His eyes narrowed as soon as the door swung aside and his tonfas were in his hands again, "Haneuma."

Dino's eyes opened wide when he spotted me but I had the opposite reaction. My eyes narrowed into a glare focused completely on his stupid face.

"Kira." He grinned, "I didn't think I'd get to see you today."

Kyoya swung. I didn't know what was the problem or why Dino didn't fight back but Kyoya's tonfa slammed straight into the Bucking Bronco's nose and he was bleeding from both nostrils after just one hit.

"Tch." Kyoya abandoned the boring fight and dropped his butt into the chair behind the rather fancy looking desk, "You didn't bring your subordinates. I don't fight weaklings."

"Ahaha." Dino laughed through his hand, clutching his nose, "It's good to see you too, Kyoya."

Ignoring him, my brother put his foot out and dragged over another chair without getting up from his seat, "Hamburger steak, now."

"Tell me a story, Kyoya." I grinned, setting down the bag of take-out and taking the seat he had offered me, "How did you become the Cloud Guardian for Sawada?"

He just shrugged and began to eat silently. I sighed and settled for watching him eat rather than having a conversation. I took the first bite of my steak and a shock went down my spine. I turned my head to look over my shoulder only to find Dino staring at me with a stupid grin on his face.

"What?" I growled.

"Is it good?"

"..." I looked down at the half-eaten steak and then back up at the Bucking Bronco, "Don't talk to me."

"You talked to me first." He chuckled, "I missed you, Kira."

So warm. I don't know what it was but suddenly my chest felt really warm, if it wasn't for Kyoya I think I might've had a heart attack or something.

"Fuck off, Haneuma." Kyoya grumbled through a mouthful of steak.

"Haha. Sorry." Dino laughed again but his eyebrow went up when he found me staring at him, "Is there something on my face?"

I officially hate Dino. Why is he so close to Kyoya? I'm going to say it once and only once. I'm jealous. It kind of feels like Dino is trying to steal Kyoya away from me. Kyoya only shows his softer side to his family and small animals. I would know because one time I asked Kyoya exactly why he likes small animals and he told me straight up that he groups me into that category so he likes small creatures because they remind him of me and I remind him of them. I should've been insulted but I love Kyoya too much to be insulted by that.

ANYWAYS! Who does Dino think he is? Why are they so close anyways?

"Hey, Kyoya. What's the deal with you and Haneuma?"

Kyoya's eyes flickered to my face for a brief moment, "He's annoying."

"At least we agree on that." I nodded, "So why's he always hanging around you?"

"He must want to get bitten to death." Kyoya said it like it was the simplest thing in the world.

"You're so cute." Whoops. It came out. Kyoya hates those kinds of compliments.

He glared at me and stabbed his fork into my steak and I realized that his plate was empty.

It's alright though because I love Kyoya more than I love food so I just pushed my plate closer to him and gave it up.

"You guys are both cute if you ask me." Dino chuckled.

"No one asked you." Kyoya and I snapped at the same time and returned to ignoring him.

I know Kyoya pretty well and I'm sure there are other people who know this too but Kyoya hates crowds. Anything more than two is a crowd and rather than being with one other person, Kyoya prefers being alone. But putting two and two together, I think Kyoya secretly likes Dino. Deep down, my brother must feel a certain respect for the Bucking Bronco. When Kyoya really dislikes a person, he destroys them so if he was really bothered by Dino's presence like he pretends to be, Dino would be long gone.

My phone went off super loudly just then and it drew the attention of both Dino and Kyoya. I laughed nervously as I picked up the phone, "This is Hibari."

"VOI!"

Oh… That was Squalo. Kyoya's eyes narrowed on my phone and Dino let out a low chuckle.

"Squalo-senpai. Talk quietly." I demanded, "You're going to break my eardrums."

"We've got a mission!" He roared, ignoring my request, "Get your ass back here now."

"Already?" I whined, "Can I just skip out on this one?"

"Stop your complaining and get over here. The mission target is in Japan." He growled.

"Oh shit." Oh boy. That's bad. That probably means the target is already onto us. Must be a dangerous target if the mission was given to us. I slammed my phone shut and patted Kyoya's head as gently as possible.

"Ngh." He grunted, partially complaining and partially asking me if I was leaving now.

"I'll see you later, Kyoya."

There was a certain emotion behind Kyoya's eyes that I can't quite explain or describe but if I had to describe it to someone, I would probably say that he gave me a 'Don't go yet' kind of look. Out of character? No. He was giving me a 'Don't go because I haven't fought you yet' look not a 'Please don't go' look.

"You promised me a fight." He complained.

"Another day." I promised, "I'll be back."

"Don't bother, liar."

I couldn't help but laugh as I hurried out, Dino following right behind me.

"Can I help?" The Bucking Bronco offered.

"No. Get lost." I snapped.

"Please?"

"No." I repeated, "Get lost."

"Please."

"The rumors about you are all wrong. You're not such a great mafia boss after all. You're just a desperate man full of mistakes." I didn't know why I said such hurtful words but it probably hurt me more than it hurt him.

He grinned at me, "If that's what makes you feel better, then yeah. I am. You heard rumors about me?"

My eyebrow twitched. I messed up. I didn't mean to make it seem like I had kept my ears open for information about him all this time since it really wasn't like that. I would never admit it to him but I had gone digging for information about him rather than just waiting around to hear rumors. I wanted to know how he was doing and if he was still alive and well. Suddenly, I was curious again. Did he think of me? Did he listen more carefully for information about me? Or did he coldly turn a blind eye or a deaf ear to everything?

The Bucking Bronco followed me all the way up to the hotel offering me his help, "Come on. I can show you my skills now."

"I don't care." I stopped just before the doorway, "Go away."

"Not until you promise that I can see you again."

"No." I growled, "I never want to see you again."

"Can I hold you?" He smiled at me so kindly and I don't know what it is but my body felt warm.

"No." I stubbornly refused.

His smile grew much more warm as he wrapped his arms around me, "See you later, Kira."

And that was it. He turned and left without another word, leaving me standing in front of the hotel with a warm feeling in my stomach and chest. I hate him. My heart must've stabbed itself or something. That's the only way that my chest would feel so warm. I must be bleeding in there or something.

"Just in time." Squalo spotted me on his way out of the hotel, "We're hunting this guy now."

Belphegor was right on his tail with a picture in hand. The blond spotted me and handed me the picture, "Him. I'll find him first. Shishishi."

"Levi went out ten minutes ago." Squalo informed me before disappearing.

"Ushishishi." Bel snickered before snatching the picture from my hands, "You've looked enough. I'm going."

And Bel was gone too. Lussuria hurried out and spotted me, "You've got good timing. Here."

He handed me a headset and disappeared as well. If all of us are participating in the mission, our target is not someone to underestimate. I pulled the headphones over my head and took off. Information first. Judging by the tattoos on the guy's bald head, the target was a member of the Japanese Yakuza. Terrible. That means he's got money and probably has one foot in the political world too. We're going to be in big trouble if we get caught.

I was searching for info well into the night and even when the morning hit, nobody had used the headset to contact me. This guy was one hell of a hider. I was tired and hungry therefore, I was grumpy and hotheaded. I was about to barge into any old building and demand for someone to find this person for me. My bad mood only got worse. The sun came up and Dino was standing in front of me.

"Kira!" He smiled and hurried over, Romario trailing behind him much more slowly, "Good morning."

"Huh?" I glared at him, "Does it look like a good morning to you? Fucking herbivore."

"On a harsh job?" Dino chuckled, "Come on. I'll buy you breakfast, at least."

My ears twitched. Breakfast sounded good but I didn't want to give into Dino so easily so I ignored him and walked away.

"Kira." He whined, following me around, "Isn't it about time you forgave me?"

"Never. Get lost."

Romario chuckled in amusement, "Maybe we should do as the lady asks, boss."

"But…" Dino whined, "But… I don't want to."

A wave of nostalgia washed over me. Bucking Bronco Dino may be the boss of the Cavallone Family right now but when I met him, he was a loser. He complained about everything, had no skills, fucked up everything, and most of all whined like a little baby. I'm never going to tell him but I found that extremely cute.

"Kira." He whined, "Please. Just one meal."

My eyebrow twitched and my body lost the will to keep moving. I was frozen in my place even as my mouth stubbornly refused, "No."

He clung to me dramatically, "I'll do anything. Just have breakfast with me!"

"Boss, you look pitiful." Romario pleaded, "Get up."

"I'll do anything." Dino repeated, "I don't care what I look like."

If I had looked at his face, I would've known that he and Romario had already planned this little morning drama but I couldn't trust myself to keep hating him if I looked so I didn't find out until much later in my life that this moment was planned out before it even started.

"Stupid, Haneuma." I grumbled.

"I'm stupid. I know. One meal. Please." He sniffled like he was about to cry.

Let me tell you. Dino is one hell of an actor… or maybe I should say voice actor because if I had looked at his face I would've known that he was smiling and trying to hold in his laughter rather than actually sniffling and sobbing but I didn't look so again, I didn't find that out until much later in my life as well.

"One." I relented, subconsciously pulling him to his feet without looking at his face.

"Yay~" He cooed, "Romario! Get the car!"

"Yes boss."

Once the foreign car pulled up beside us, Dino pulled open the door for me, "After you, my lady."

"Don't call me that." I snapped, "Or else I'll bite you to death."

He offered me a polite, gentlemanly hand as I ducked into the car before him. He slid into the seat beside me and grasped both my hands in his one large hand before reaching over to help me with my seatbelt.

I glared down at his hand and disliked how he could hold both of mine in just one of his. It disgusted me. When I first met Dino, our hands were the same size. The bastard just had to grow, didn't he?

"Where to?" Romario asked from behind the wheel.

"What do you want to eat, Kira?" Dino smiled at me, pulling his seatbelt over himself without ever letting go of my hands.

"Hamburger steak." I mumbled, finding it difficult to look him in the eye.

"You ate that yesterday." He laughed.

"So what? You have a problem with that?"

"Not at all. Hamburger steak it is." He grinned, "Romario!"

"On it, boss." The older man chuckled, hitting the gas.

The fancy restaurant thing didn't suit Dino so we ended up at a small family diner. Dino had already agreed to pay for the meal and he should know how much I eat but he was still smiling like he had no worries at all. As part of my revenge, I'll be eating Dino out of house and home now. Our steaks hit the table and Dino started right away on cutting his meat into smaller pieces. I stared at the steaming food for a long while. I don't want to make it seem like I'm willingly accepting his food so I'm made a big deal out of waiting for him to start eating first. Surprisingly, Dino put down his utensils and reached across the table. He picked up my plate and replaced it with his own, the only difference between the two being the cut/uncut steak.

"Go ahead." He smiled, "If you don't like it we can order something else."

My face began to heat up and that warm feeling returned to my chest at his kind gesture. I lost. I'm already starting to open up to Dino again. I wonder how much longer I can put up the grudge-bearing, friend-turned enemy front.

"What's wrong?" His smile had been wiped off his face, "Do you not like it since it's just the two of us? Should I call in Romario? Or Kyoya?"

I sighed, stabbing the first chunk of meat roughly.

Dino jumped slightly in his seat.

"Here." I offered him the first cut.

"EH?!" His eyes opened wide, he seems to do that a lot lately, "Really?"

I nodded indifferently, holding it out to him and noticing that my arms were pretty short. When Dino leaned forward his arms were able to reach my plate all the way on this side of the table but even with the length of the fork added to my reach, my arm didn't extend all the way to him.

He leaned forward and snatched the meat from my fork with his teeth before I could change my mind then he smiled. Dino is always kind of smiling but this time, he looked so happy that I didn't know what to do.

My eyes began to burn from the heat that tortured my face and my chest felt so warm that I almost started to cry.

"Sh-Shit. Kira, what… Why? Aww crap." Dino panicked and seemed lost for a minute, having an internal debate with himself. In less than two seconds, he determined what he wanted to do and got up to slide into the seat beside me at the booth and threw his arms around me, "Why are you crying? I'm sorry. Don't cry."

Oh. I guess that 'I almost started to cry' was just in my head. I was really crying. My mind was jumbled and I fumbled with words in my head, trying to put together something to say but I guess it doesn't always work that way. My mouth opened and a flood of words that I would deny saying later on spilled out, "Why are you so nice to me now? It hurt so much. Why did you have to leave me? I missed you so much, Dino!"

"I know." He mumbled quietly, "I'm so sorry. I swear I won't leave you again."

People were probably staring at us and I did feel bad afterwards for making Dino look like a jerk, because when a guy makes a girl cry in public that's what people think, but I'm grateful that he never pushed me away as I clung to him and cried like a little baby. Pretty shameful since I'm twenty-one but I couldn't help it. I felt much better after crying and for some reason I didn't want to let go of him ever again.

Does that mean I'm in love with Dino like Squalo said I was?


	6. Varia Quality

**Disclaimer: I wish I owned Reborn and all the wonderful character but I still do not. How sad.**

* * *

The members of the Varia were all strange people. Some of us are aware that we're strange and others are not. But after a whole twenty-four hours of searching, we gathered up once more in the hotel room and not a single one of us made a report with any decent information. I told them that I thought the guy was probably a member of the Japanese Yakuza that had something to do with politics if he was such a big danger but instead of giving our reports one by one like normal people, we argued it all out in a jumble. That's just the way it was with us. We argue about everything.

"SHUT UP, TRASH!" Xanxus finally roared, "Who cares who he is? We just have to kill him!"

"Shishishi. That's our boss." Bel snickered, "Let's kill him and get it over with."

"I like that idea too but how can we kill a guy that WE CAN'T FIND!" I screamed, shoving the prince out of his chair.

"SHUT UP!" Xanxus screamed, protesting against my raised voice by throwing a glass of wine at me.

I ducked. It hit Levi in the face. Levi screamed in pain. Poor Levi. We're not the Varia without this process. We need this whole angry boss, poor Levi thing.

"So now what?" Lussuria mused, "We can't kill a guy we can't find."

"Yeah…." Mammon grumbled, busily counting his money rather than putting in any opinions.

"VOI! WE DON'T HAVE TIME TO LINGER ON ONE JOB! WE HAVE OTHER ONES TO DEAL WITH!" Squalo complained loudly.

"Then are we splitting forces?" I asked.

There was an evil gleam in Squalo's eyes and Lussuria too for that matter. Belphegor snickered like usual and Mammon muttered something about a free job.

"I guess you can do the new one by yourself while the rest of us work on this one." Squalo slammed an unopened file in front of me.

"What?!" I slammed my hands on the table and stood up, "No way! You guys are assholes!"

"That's right. Now get to work, trash." Xanxus smirked at me, "All by yourself."

"Fucking bastard." I growled, "Fight me for it. If I win, you can do it by yourself."

"This isn't a debate. Get to work." The boss demanded.

"Bastard." I cursed again and I got up to continue the work that my oh so kind companions had left me.

"Oh by the way, the new job is in Italy. We're all going back." Squalo mentioned.

"And you're leaving me here?! Where am I supposed to get the good Italian beef?!" I screamed, turning around at the injustice.

"Sucks for you." He nodded like there was nothing wrong with that, "And we voted to leave the boss here too."

"What?" That was even worse than being left here all alone without European meat. I would rather be left here all alone than be here alone with the boss. "No thanks. No way. I want to be alone."

"Too bad. You're stuck. If it helps, Levi's sticking around too."

"Hm." Levi nodded at me with a glare, probably trying to tell me secretly to stay away from his precious boss.

"That's great. That's worse than leaving me alone." I complained.

"Sucks." Squalo snickered, "By the way, we're leaving today."

"WHAT?! NO!"

"WHAT?! YES!" Squalo mocked me, "I think this'll probably give you a heart attack but we're leaving in like ten minutes."

"... Bastards." I turned on Lussuria, "You can't leave me. You owe me. I saved your life during the Sky Battle."

"Sorry." The okama shrugged, "But I did buy a whole crate of those spicy chips you love."

"... You and Sasagawa can both just go to hell." I grumbled and I just kept complaining until they were all gone.

It was awkward after all the more fun member of the Varia disappeared. There was no one to keep us in line or make sure we were actually doing our work with our strategy captain gone so there wasn't any work getting done. It was just me eating spicy chips, Levi fussing over the boss, and Xanxus drinking vodka for the longest time. Finally, I got up to leave.

Someone has to actually do work around here. Our boss never even gets out of his chair unless its to pee. I think if someone told him he was allowed to fight while sitting in a chair, he would do it. One time, Xanxus announced that he had to pee. We all just looked at him funny and said okay just go then but he said he wanted to be carried right up to the bathroom door in his chair. WHAT THE FUCK?! Seriously? Who does this guy think he is? Lazy bastard.

In the end, Leviathan carried him, chair and all, to the bathroom so he could take a piss. Levi really likes to spoil our boss but I don't think the poor guy has ever heard a 'Thank you' from the boss in his entire life. Levi must really be a masochist.

Anyways, my job is much more important than what our sadistic boss does to his subordinates. I gnawed on a piece of beef jerky as I continued the search but came up with nothing so I just went back to the hotel late at night with a whole bunch of snack in my hand. Xanxus was still awake but strangely, Levi was asleep. So he must've been woken up by something and it looked like he was in a terrible mood.

"Boss?" I squinted my eyes and I could make out his figure sitting on the floor in the corner with a buttload of beer bottles around him but it was hard to see him in the dark.

"Fuck off." He snapped, kicking his leg out against the mess of glass bottles on the floor.

I'm kind of starting to see the pattern here. When the boss wakes up and no one else is awake, it seems to put him in a bad mood. I'm not saying he gets lonely or anything, I'm just saying that there's a vague connection there because he only wakes up when someone wakes him up or when he's ready to get up. So if he's awake before other people, something must've happened. And then it hit me.

"Boss. Did you have a nightmare?" I asked quietly, narrowing my eyes to better focus through the dark in case he decided to attack me for even thinking that.

Xanxus was quiet for a moment before snarling, "None of your business, trash."

He wasn't throwing anything at me so that was a good sign for me. I took two steps closer and tried conversing again, "Boss. Drinking that much is bad for your health."

He was quiet for another second before he shot back, "Eating like a fatty isn't good for people of your height."

My eyebrow twitched and my hands went into my pockets for the gauntlets. No one gets away with calling me short but I had to calm down or I would be playing right into the boss' hands. He only insulted me because he's trying to keep me from probing into whatever made him angry. I won't settle for that.

"Boss." I tried again, taking a few steps closer, "Do you want to talk?"

He didn't answer so I took another three steps closer and then closer and closer until I was standing right in front of him. He looked up at me through the dark, his eyes sharp and threatening but there was something I had never seen before behind those outward defenses. He looked afraid.

I like big animals. I'm the opposite of Kyoya in that matter. I'm small so I like big creatures. That's probably why I've never once seen the boss as someone that needed protection as opposed to Dino, who I saw as a tiny animal that needed protection all the time. But for the first time since I met him, the boss looked like a tiny creature that needed comfort and warmth.

I reached down and put a hand on his head carefully, waiting for a violent reaction but all I got was a low growl, "Fuck off."

If he really didn't like it, he would've slapped my hand away but he just sat quietly as I crouched down in front of him to pat his head gently, "Let's talk, boss. Tell me about your day."

"Fuck off." He repeated himself but didn't react violently towards my small gestures of comfort.

"What's the matter, boss?" I asked.

A growl ripped through his throat and he surged forward to slam his lips into mine. Now, he was trying to scare me off and I could feel it. He didn't want to show anyone his moment of weakness and yet, here I was, seeing it all. I ran from him the first two times he had kissed me and he was hoping for the same reaction this time. I froze. To keep myself from pushing him away or yelling at him and running away, I sat patiently until he decided that it wasn't working.

Xanxus pulled away with a low growl but he didn't say a word.

"What's wrong, boss?" I asked again.

I almost thought he was just going to sit there ignoring me for the rest of the night but he finally said, "Stop calling me boss."

I really didn't think Xanxus would stay up and be all grumpy over something so petty so I pressed him further, "Tell me what's wrong and I'll think about it."

"How can you keep calling me your boss? Everyone knows that I'm not the Ninth's son anymore. How can you all keep following me like it doesn't matter?" He growled.

"We don't care who you are. You're strong and that's all that matters." I fought the urge to laugh at him,"Is that what your little nightmare was about?"

His nose twitched in irritation, "Cradle Affair."

"Ah." I nodded. I could completely understand. If I had been frozen in a fucking block of ice for nearly eight years, I would have nightmares about it too, "No big deal, boss. We've got your back if you want to go for another round of that with Sawada. The Ninth was difficult to overthrow but we're the Varia! We could kill Sawada and all his guardians while they're sleeping and make you the Tenth."

Xanxus just stared at me incredulously while I talked.

"If you want, we'll go for the old man and Sawada! We'll assassinate them all, leaving no witnesses and then we'll take over the Vongola Family just like we planned. How do you like that idea?" I grinned.

He stared at me for a while longer before letting out a bark of laughter, "If that's what I wanted I would've done it already, scum. Know your place. I'm the boss here and I don't need your ridiculous ideas. I don't have to be the Tenth boss. I'm the leader of the Varia."

"Oh? So you don't want to lead the Vongola anymore?"

He smirked at me, "I'll take that too if Sawada Tsunayoshi shows any weakness."

I just laughed and mentally welcomed our arrogant boss back to this world, "You got it, boss."

"Clean this mess up, trash." He ordered and returned to his room to get some sleep.

Damn. I should've left him there all mopy. Now I have to clean this all up by myself but at least the boss is in a better mood again. He better buy me a steak tomorrow or else I'm telling the whole world that he was being sulky for nothing.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O

It took three days all by myself but the info was all set. I found the baldy with the tattoo. Sadly, he's the boss of the group and he most certainly has a foot in politics. So how do I keep them from getting revenge on the Vongola Family if I kill him? Well. The Varia is a squad that specializes in assassination, all of the members are trained to kill people efficiently and without leaving evidence. That includes me. How do I kill people quietly if my weapon is a gauntlet? Don't think normally. Think outside the box. I bet you can guess how I do it.

The gauntlets are good for everything. I don't leave any fingerprints if I use them during the mission and on top of that, I've earned a name for myself. Squalo is known to be the best swordsman around, Xanxus is known as the boss who keeps us all in line with his guns, Levi is known for his parabolas, Mammon is known as the most skilled illusionist around, Belphegor is known as Prince the Ripper, and Lussuria for his Muay Thai. Me? I'm known as the Cannibal. No. I don't eat people but I can see why some people think I do.

In the dead of the night, I snuck into the building where the baldy stays and had to wait for hours outside the window as he 'took care' of a woman. It was torture. And on top of that, I had to wait for them to fall asleep before making my move. I unscrewed the vent and dropped silently into the room, my gauntlets already over my hands. I approached the bed. In less than two seconds, I had my armed fists shoved all the way down their throats. Yes. The man and his lover. I couldn't leave any witnesses after all. They both looked up at me in terror and both of them had the reaction any normal human being had, they tried to scream and started to gag. Yeah. Screaming doesn't work too well with someone's fist down your throat. The only sound that came out was a near-silent croaking noise.

If you think you can scream with my gauntlet down your throat, you're welcome to try. I'll bite you to death just like I did with these guys. Just to make myself clear, I did give them fair warning before I bit them. Ladies first so I whispered, "I'll bite you both to death."

My teeth clamped down over the woman's jugular and I bit and tore the vein from her neck before licking my lips and tearing the man's jugular out as well. I made sure they were both dead before I pulled my gauntlets out from their mouths. The only evidence I ever leave is the faint saliva mixed in their blood, there's not even a bite mark usually because when I tear the jugular out with my mouth, the skin completely tears and my teeth marks become invisible due to the jagged tears of the skin. Don't I get caught by the saliva? Not really. If you want to catch me by the saliva, you have to hurry because it dries up with the blood and by the time the blood dries it's too hard to pick out my DNA from the 1% saliva - 99% blood mix. And if by any chance I get caught, we just pay off the police and everything is alright.

Just like that, I fled the crime scene.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O

"Up! Get up!"

I groaned and swung at whoever was trying to wake me up. The day after a job, I'm usually tired beyond recognition so I'm never in the mood to get up.

Levi's voice sounded really panicked and urgent though, "Squalo. She's not getting up…. No I don't know."

Oh. Levi's on the phone with our strategy captain.

"Kira! Get up! Now!" Levi shook me again, "Hurry up!"

I groaned again and turned over to look at him, "What do you want?"

"Talk to Squalo." He demanded and handed me his cell.

"Hibari here." I croaked out as I accepted the call.

"Listen closely, Kira. I need you to take up another job in Japan. Alone this time." Squalo sounded rushed and panicked. It instantly woke me up.

"What's wrong?" I asked, sitting up in bed to listen better.

"Get the boss to come back to Italy no matter what and then intercept a private jet." Squalo instructed, "I need you to sabotage the private jet so that it can't take off with the explosives otherwise we'll have big trouble over here."

"Even if I take down the plane, they can just get another one can't they?"

"Kill the guy but not right away. If you kill him right away we'll have problems."

"I got it. I want steak and turkey though. I won't do anything until I get my steak." I laid down my demands, "Ten pounds each."

"TEN POUNDS?! ARE YOU CRAZY?!"

"I won't work for any less." I said firmly, "And if you try to make ridiculous deals with me, I'll bite you to death."

I heard Levi gulp from where he was standing and I smirked at him. He was probably waiting to say something to me and now he knew that I wasn't in a negotiating mood.

"VOI! SCUM! I GOT IT! JUST DO IT!" Squalo roared.

I grinned, "It's always a pleasure to work for you, Squalo-senpai. Give me the plane number and I'll be off."

"Don't be arrogant. There are cameras in an airport. You have to move carefully!" He warned me and then read out a million numbers that I would probably forget right after I found the plane.

I hung up the phone and glared at Levi, "What do you want, herbivore?"

"The boss wants you to call a taxi for him." Levi grumbled.

"You do it." I snapped and tossed his phone back to him.

I could feel him glaring at me as I rolled out of bed to get dressed.

"I'll tell the boss you said that." He muttered as he left me to do my thing.

I snorted. He can tell Xanxus whatever he wants because I'm still not doing it.

Just like Squalo told me to, I took the boss and Levi to the airport and sent them flying home to Italy and then I destroyed the turbines on the private jet like Squalo ordered and went into hiding until the guy came back with the cargo. He was obviously not happy when he found his turbines jacked up ever so subtly from the inside out. I made sure to wait as long as I could before slaughtering the guy.

How long did I wait? I waited until the new jet was loaded up and then I killed the guy as soon as he got into the control room and took my leave before anyone could find me.

This is all in a days work for a member of the Varia. Or in Xanxus' words. "This is Varia Quality, trash."

* * *

**I don't know why I did it. I made her a complete freak but I can't say I don't like her. What do you guys think? Too freaky or just average among the Varia guys?**


	7. Pounding Heart or Warm Feelings?

**Disclaimer**_**: I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn or any of the characters even if I wish I did!**_

* * *

I was all excited after I killed the pilot the other day because I thought I could go back to Italy and eat some Umbrian Sausage Bake but noooo. Squalo called first thing in the morning and told me to stay here for a while in case another job came in and we had a whole argument about which was more important, the Varia assassination jobs or my Umbrian Sausage Bake. It lasted an hour and a half until the boss finally snatched the phone and roared at me, "TRASH SHOULD JUST SHUT UP AND FOLLOW MY ORDERS!"

And that was it. They hung up on me and didn't answer my calls when I tried contacting them again. This was the worst tragedy that could have befallen me and it had me wondering, since when to I take orders from them? So I set out to buy my own ticket back to Italy to eat some good sausage bake but I just had to meet up with Dino and Romario on the way to the airport.

"Kira!" He smiled at me like he hadn't seen me in a whole year when in truth, it had only been a few days, "How have you been? I thought about calling you but I forgot that you never gave me your number and I went to the hotel but then I realized I don't know which room you're in."

"Get lost." I snapped, "I'm in a hurry."

"Eh?" His face fell dramatically, obvious not expecting that kind of reaction. He was probably thinking that I would be all nice to him after crying in his arms the last time we met but no. I haven't forgiven him completely yet.

"Go play with someone who actually likes you." I shoved him out of my way as I hurried downtown to find a taxi.

"Where are you going?"

"Back to Italy."

"W-Why?" He grabbed me by the arm and didn't let go, "You're not staying with Kyoya?"

I snorted, "I'll do whatever I want and right now, I want sausage bake."

"Eh?" Dino looked utterly confused, "You're going all the way back to Italy for a sausage bake?"

"You have a problem with that?" My hand went up, rolled into a tight fist.

"No!" He said quickly, "I was just thinking that you can get that stuff here too."

"..." I blinked at him dumbly, waiting for him to say he was joking or something.

"It might not be Umbrian Sausage Bake but you can get a normal sausage bake here too." He repeated, "They have it at the marketplace on the streets."

I nodded to show I heard what he said but it took me a while longer to process the new fact. Since when did Japan sell sausage bake?

"Do you want me to take you?" He smiled at me again, his expression filled with hope like a little puppy.

I gulped hard, tempted by his offer for food. If I went with Dino, I could get sausage bake a lot faster than if I went back to Italy on a long plane ride.

"Yes?" Dino urged me gently, "I'll pay."

"Fine. Only if you buy Kyoya some too." I put my conditions on the table as my last form of defense.

"You got it." He grinned.

You know…. I kind of want to ask him, why is Dino always so honest with his feelings? He's like an open book. When he's happy, it shows on his face. When he's sad, it shows in his eyes. When he's frustrated, it shows on his forehead. If only our boss knew how to do that instead of throw things at us all the time. Maybe Xanxus should get some self-expression lessons from Dino.

My first time in a large marketplace… at twenty-one years of age… but why with Dino and Romario out of all people? It makes me sick. Dino and his subordinate exchanged some words and Romario returned to the car while Dino approached me again, "So let's find you that sausage bake and go see Kyoya."

"Don't tell me what to do." I grumbled as Dino led me through the crowded market street, several vendors were trying to attract customers and it looked like Dino had been here several times before because the vendors greeted him as he walked by.

The Bucking Bronco stopped at a few places when he caught me staring and he bought me everything that I looked at for more than ten seconds. Why is he so nice to me? Asshole. He's not getting anything out of me after ignoring me for nine years and then trying to make it better by buying me gifts. Douchebag. He bought me everything from takoyaki to fried squid and even when I thought he would ask me for something in return he just smiled and asked if I was happy.

"Why would I be happy walking around a crowded street?" I rolled my eyes, "Just keep to your promise and buy Kyoya sausage bake."

"Of course." He swore awfully quietly.

When I looked up to ask him why his response was so weak, I found him staring longingly in another direction. Curious as to what had caught his eye, I peeked around him to find the object that has captured his attention. A young couple was holding hands tightly, their fingers intertwined as they decided which flavor of ice cream to buy. That confused me. Was that someone he knew? Or did he want ice cream?

"Haneuma." I elbowed him in the gut as I gnawed on my squid, "Someone you know?"

"Huh? Oh… No. They're strangers." He answered, his eyes speaking for him. He was sad.

"Then it's the ice cream?"

"No. No need to worry about me." He smiled, the expression of happiness not reaching his eyes, "Let's find that sausage bake."

"Hmm." I hummed, shrugging off any thoughts that didn't have to do with Kyoya or food.

The sausage bake was warm and still tasted good when we brought it back to Kyoya at his school. My brother welcomed me in but glared Dino down until he decided that the sausage bake smelled too good to ignore.

The Bucking Bronco sat in the corner and watched us interact.

Kyoya went from talking about how a few students went missing from the school to explaining how his tonfas worked and showing me a chain that came out of the end if he wanted it to. He's so cute. He was so busy telling me about how he fixed the end of his tonfas that I was afraid the sausage would be cold before long so I started to feed him as he continued his explanation. We may have a five year age difference but age is really just a number. We have similar interests so there has never been a time where we disliked each other. Other siblings seemed to come to dislike each other after a while, sometime during puberty, but Kyoya and I never had that drift between us. We were family and we enjoyed each other's company even though we had both claimed to hate people at one time. Well… He still hated people and crowds while I got over it.

His eyes narrowed on the door as someone burst in to interrupt his explanation, "What's the meaning of this Kusakabe?"

"Leader. There's a fight on the school grounds." Kyoya's underling explained, "Should we stop it or do you want to do it?"

Kyoya's eyes narrowed dangerously and he stood up, "I'll take care of it."

"Yes sir!"

My brother leaned down to whisper into my ear, "I'll be back."

He's so cute. Does he think I'm going to disappear without saying goodbye or something? Nah... He probably just thinks that if I leave he won't get to fight me again... My battle obsessed cute little brother... Ugh.

The door closed leaving me alone with Dino.

The Bucking Bronco grinned at me, "Why so secretive? What did Kyoya say to you?"

"None of your business." I snapped, probably making Kyoya's small meaningless message seem more significant that it actually was.

"Kira." He whined, "Why do you hate me?"

My ears twitched at the nostalgic tone of his whining voice, "Shut up."

Dino opened his mouth to say something else but my phone went off loudly so he closed his mouth and waited for me to take the call.

"Hibari here." I grumbled.

"Hello honey~"

My eyebrow twitched, "Lussuria. What do you want?"

"Just calling to share some gossip." He giggled, "The boss was with a woman last night. Just thought I might tell you."

My eyebrow twitched again, "Why should I care what that crazy boss of ours does?"

"Because you're in love with him, silly." The okama cooed though the phone, "Oh and by the way, Squ-chan wants to know whether you want ten pounds of sirloin steak or tri-tip."

"It doesn't matter." I shrugged even though Lussuria couldn't see me.

"Oh! Here comes the boss now. I'll pass it over." Lussuria didn't give me a chance to protest and the boss' voice took over.

"What does trash want with me?" Xanxus' voice was usually deep but it sounded even deeper over the phone and it made my heart pound strangely.

"Nothing." I said, "Nothing at all."

"... When are you coming back?" The boss asked.

"Eh? You're the one who ordered me to stay here." I laughed, "Miss me or something?"

"Never. Know your place, you short piece of trash."

"... Boss. I'll kill you the next time I see you." I told him.

"Not if I kill you first." I could practically hear him smirking on the other end.

My eyebrow twitched. I don't see how Lussuria can possibly say that I'm in love with this guy. Ridiculous.

"Kira." Xanxus' deep voice rumbled in my ear, the sound of his voice calling my name was doing strange things to my pulse.

"Yes, boss?" I don't think the boss has ever called me by my name before.

"**I'm** going to be the one who kills you." He said simply.

Huh? Was he trying to say that I should be careful in his own indirect way? Was he telling me to stay safe until he saw me again? What's wrong with this guy? How could he do this to me?

"Whatever you say, boss." I muttered into the phone and I heard him laugh arrogantly before he hung up on me.

Don't tell Lussuria or Squalo but I can't deny it much longer. I think they're right. It's highly possible that I'm in love with our boss but then again...

"Kira." Dino called my attention back to him, "You got work or something?"

"No." I said shortly.

"Oh." He smiled at me, "That's great."

My heart fell back into it's normal beating but a different feeling overtook me. That warm feeling again. The more Dino smiles at me the warmer this feeling gets. I don't like it. I could be in love with Dino too. No. I can't be in love with both of them. That's not possible so which one of them am I really in love with?

Which feeling is love? The rapid heartbeat or the warm chest? It hurts too much to think about those nine years that Dino spent ignoring me but it hurts just as much to think about the eight years I spent without the boss as he suffered through the ice made my the Ninth's Zero Point Breakthrough.

Dino stood up and made his way over to me, "Is there something wrong?"

"No." I pushed him back, "Stop standing so close to me."

He frowned as he stumbled back, "You still can't forgive me?"

"Leave me alone." I demanded.

He tried to take a step toward me but failed miserably. He tripped over his own feet without the presence of his subordinates. His arms flailed out pitifully to cling to me as he went crashing to the floor, taking me with him.

It hurt badly. The marble floor of Kyoya's office made contact with my head as we tumbled to the floor and when my head finally stopped spinning, I took in our position. Dino's lips had crashed down onto mine, his eyes were wide and he remained completely frozen.

It was an almost spontaneous reaction from out of nowhere. The door creaked open again and my fist went straight into Dino's nose, sending the Bucking Bronco flying back.

I wiped my mouth as Kyoya wandered back in with an expression of boredom on his face. My brother took one look at our positions, me sitting up on the floor wiping my mouth and Dino holding his bloody nose to keep it from bleeding onto the marble tiles, and he pulled his tonfas on the young boss of the Cavallone Family.

"I'll bite you to death." And for the first time, I realized that Kyoya's voice was pretty deep too. My brother had properly gone through puberty and his voice had gotten much deeper than it was when we were younger. This is the first time that I saw my little brother for the man he had become. My opinion of him changed. He's not cute. He's manly… but a cute kind of manly. Cutely manly.

I watched my brother beat Dino to a pulp. Without Romario, Dino had no way to defend himself from my brother's attacks and the fight must've been boring but Kyoya didn't complain about that as he relentlessly beat the Bucking Bronco.

"Kyoya." I called out to my brother quietly.

He froze and looked back at me, "Kira."

"That's enough, isn't it? You can barely even recognize the guy." I laughed, "You're so manly, Kyoya."

For the first time in a long time, Kyoya genuinely smiled at me and said, "Stupid. I was always like this."

A little yellow bird flapped it way through the open window, singing some ridiculous song out of tune and settle on Kyoya's shoulder cooing, "Hibari~ Hibari~ Kira-nee~ Kira-nee~"

Kyoya's eyes opened wide and he hissed, "Shh, you stupid bird."

"Pft." I bit back a laugh, "Never mind, Kyoya. You're just cute."

"Kira-nee~ Kira-nee~" The bird cooed, probably finding my laughter encouraging.

"You call me that in front of your friends, Kyoya?" I snickered.

"No. Shut up or I'll bite you all to death." Kyoya snapped and pulled his tonfas into his hands again.

"Oh?" I laughed, "You're so cute. Why are you such a little cutie?"

Kyoya turned around and hit Dino, who had just recovered, once more, "Shut up!"

"I didn't say anything!" He protested as Kyoya beat him over the head.

I laughed and laughed as my little brother mercilessly beat him down. Little did I know, that this would be the last time for a long time where I saw Kyoya as my reckless little brother.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O

I don't know what happened but one minute I was walking home with Dino and the next a big purple bazooka was coming down over our heads. My body reacted before my mind and I shoved Dino as far away from me as possible. I smelled smoke and squeezed my eyes shut. When I opened my eyes again, it was pitch black. What the hell. I tried putting my hand up but it seemed like something was blocking me in from all sides so I did the only thing I knew how to do in a situation like this. I squirmed about and pulled my gauntlets over my hands and swung wildly.

Dirt fell into my face and eyes as I continued to thrash about, my hands going up further and further into dirt. Eventually, the dirt above me gave way and the sunlight hit my face. I climbed out of the hole I had made with some effort and I realized I had just climbed out of a grave. I cleared the dust off the tombstone that was planted firmly into the dirt a foot away from where I had come up to find that my name had been inscribed neatly into the headstone. It was a handwriting I recognized. Dino's. We went to school together so I know his penmanship quirks and habits.

In plain Italian were the words, 'strong til the end' and some numbers that couldn't possibly be right. Eight years. It was nearly eight years ahead of the correct year. That's crazy. This must be a dream. A ridiculous dream. How could I be dead? And how could eight years have past so fast? Ridiculous.

My ear twitched and I picked up on footsteps. Oh shit. This could be bad. Oh crap. What do I do? I'm in the middle of a graveyard. The only place to hide would be back in my grave but I wasn't about to go back there so I just risked it. I was confident that I was stronger than anyone I could meet in a graveyard so I stood there and braced myself for a fight that I never got.

The person approaching me finally spotted me standing in the middle of the graveyard and his mouth dropped open, "Kira-san!"

"The fuck are you?!" I screamed as he threw his arms around me, this guy was so fucking tall! "WHO ARE YOU?! GET OFF ME!"

"Ahahaha! You must've come back from the past with Tsuna and Gokudera." The man laughed heartily, "Ahh… If you came from ten years ago…. then you probably don't know me too well yet. Whoops!"

He just kept laughing even after he let me go and it pissed me off.

My eyes narrowed, "Who the hell are you? How do you know me?"

"Hmm?" He pointed at himself dumbly, "Me? Aww come on. I'm Yamamoto Takeshi."

"HUH?!" I screamed, "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!"

Huh… Now that I look a little closer, there is a resemblance except this guy had to be about ten times taller than the Yamamoto I knew. What's going on? I don't get it.

He laughed again and then explained to me in hand gestures and sound effects that I had come from ten years ago after being hit by a ten year bazooka. He told me that I had died two years ago and he was here to put flowers on my grave like he usually did. Apparently, Sawada's guardians take turns putting flowers here for some reason. He explained that this was a graveyard inside their base for all the people who had fallen while fighting against the Millefiore Family. I had never even heard of them but apparently, in his time, they were the most powerful mafia family around.

"Wait. Let me get this straight." I demanded, "I died and for some reason, you and I are all buddy-buddy in this time. I don't believe you, fucking herbivore."

"Ahaha. Well… We got pretty close before you… you know… died." He smiled at me encouragingly, "We were all really close."

"All?" I glared at him.

"Yeah. Me, you, Gokudera, Tsuna, and Lambo." He grinned, "We went on a mission together before you… died."

My eyes narrowed further. Why was it so hard for him to say the word 'died'? I mean, in the Varia it's common to say that someone died or bit the dust or got what was coming to him. There was no need to sugarcoat those words. The truth was the truth no matter how you put it.

"That's impossible. There's no way our boss would let me talk to trash like you guys and get away with it." I protested, shaking my head vigorously, "You're a liar."

"You always said, 'I do whatever I want. If you pay me in steak, I'll always take up the job.' and just like that we suddenly saw a lot more of you between your jobs for the Varia." Yamamoto grinned at me, "But wow, are you sure you came here from ten years ago? You're the exact same height as you were two years ago…"

I couldn't deny it. That sounded like something I would say. So I settled for slamming my fist into his side at the sound of his insult, "Are you calling me short?"

"Never. Never." He clutched his side, laughing through the pain.

"So how do I go back?" I asked him seriously.

He stopped laughing abruptly and said, "I'm sorry. You can't go back yet. You have a purpose here. You can't go back until you set things right."

"Set what right?!" This was completely unfair. Why should I have to set something straight if I'm dead by this time? I'm dead for crying out loud! Well… Not yet… but in eight years I will be and that's technically my future so… yeah. Oh whatever, "If you give me steak, I'll do it."

"That's our Kira-san." Yamamoto grinned, "They'll be happy to see you again."

"Who?"

"Dino-san and the Varia."

Oh. I can take advantage of the future to find out who I end up with. I'm sure the future me figured out her feelings right? But who do I ask for that information? Kyoya! I have to ask Kyoya! He would know everything! This ten year jump might not be so bad at all.

* * *

**Sorry! I took so long to update! _**

**Thanks for all the reviews and encouragements. It motivates me to continue writing! T_T You're all wonderful! XD**


End file.
